Come Back To Me
by KatieCharlotte
Summary: A crystal stole her mind, took her away from him; but if he can repair the damage done, can he bring her back? Aerrow and Piper, shattered into pieces, will fight across realities to put their lives back together; regardless of the dangers. Completed.
1. Broken Spirit

**Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who both read and reviewed my first Aerrow and Piper one shot, "I'll Give You the Stars", I was beyond grateful for the support and comments :D I aim for this story to be ten chapters long, and once again I hope it will be a little different to any other Aerrow/Piper story out there on the grand world wide web :D Here's the first chapter, feel free to tell me if there are any errors and I will change them in an instant. I hope you enjoy, and please review if you have the time! **

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Broken Spirit

Aerrow looks into those amber eyes and his heart shatters into a thousand million more fragments.

"_Piper?_"

He searches for something, anything… but there is nothing. His fingers clasp her cold, lifeless palms together, squeezing them gently, begging, _pleading _for a response… but there is nothing. There is always nothing.

The Sky Knight can feel his own eyes beginning to brim with tears but he pushes them back determinedly; he should be used to this by now, this sense of loss, of grief, every time he sees her. But no matter what, no matter how many times he tries to finally convince himself that she's gone, there is that brief flicker of life behind her eyes and all of his hope surges back; it only lasts a second, but even that one fleeting second, where everything is right again, is worth the agony of accepting the truth.

And the truth is that Piper is never coming back to him.

Not _his _Piper anyway.

He sighs, defeated, releases her hands and leans back in his own chair; the woman in front of him doesn't react to the contact made, her expression stays blank and her eyes remain continually fixed on something in front of her that Aerrow cannot see. But the lack of response does not concern or scare the young man, in fact it confirms that, to a certain degree, Piper is healthy; because this is how it is, how it always is. It has been this way for five years, this is their routine; for hours the pair will sit in the same room in silence, the Sky Knight constantly searching for someone who isn't there anymore, trying to break through an invisible barrier that separates him from his best friend, and the navigator lost to the Atmos, breathing but barely living.

The room they sit in is well lit, offering its inhabitants a beautiful view of the terra outside and the blue sky dotted with clouds; but the white washed walls make Aerrow shudder uncomfortably, everything is all a little too _clinical_. The place is meant to feel like a home; sweet-scented flowers in vases on bedsides, bright portraits hanging in corridors, a well-tended garden; but Aerrow knows that beneath the "happy families" façade lies the serious and terrible truth: this is not a home, it is a hospital… a hospital for crystal-related injuries and incidents.

Although, for Piper this _is_ home; and so it has been for the past five years... not that she notices. For five long years Piper has lived in the confines of a ward specifically designed for those deemed as psychologically traumatised; and for five long years, Aerrow has visited her whenever possible, just to see… to see if… if the Piper he can remember has come back to him.

But Piper is never coming back to him.

And it is _his_ fault…

When Aerrow was fifteen years old, he and his team passed through into the far side in pursuit of Cyclonis who had escaped after her attempt to take the Atmos; during the two years they were there, they developed into young adults, learning more about each other and themselves than they could have ever imagined. They became more like a family than any of them had thought possible, they came to rely on each other, to support each other through the hardships they encountered in the new world; understanding one another in new ways, maturing and growing as independent as they were dependent upon their team. Even Finn matured… a little. And though Cyclonis posed a constant threat to them, the Storm Hawks possessed a weapon of their own, a weapon quite capable of destroying everything Cyclonis worked for: that weapon, was Piper.

For those two years on the far side, Piper studied and researched and experimented, never daring to stop, always desperate to finally harness her powers and defeat her enemy, her rival, her _best friend forever_; she felt the true scale of her responsibility, the weight of the Atmos rested upon her shoulders and not once did she falter, surrender was something Piper did not often do. As time passed she became the young, independent woman she had always longed to be; in a sense, she blossomed.

But from her power, something else bloomed; something strange and unknown to her, but something beautiful and everlasting at the same time … it was love.

"_Only Perfect Attunement can let the binding flow both ways…" _

How it hurts Aerrow to remember those words now… why? Because more passed between himself and his navigator than crystal energy during that first battle in the final war for the Atmos. They were willing to sacrifice themselves for each other, were prepared to die together and when you make an oath like that, you create a bond that can never be broken; they became one soul living in two bodies, living for one another, sharing every moment and every memory and every emotion they ever experienced.

Aerrow had always loved Piper, it just took him a while to actually see that; …but by the time he actually realised how much she meant to him, it was too late, the Piper he knew was gone. And that is why it hurts him; because Piper will never know just how much he loved her. All those years spent together, _wasted._

Whilst on the Far Side, the two teens were never apart, they grew closer every day, planning, training, practising, and waiting for that one moment when they could finally find the confidence to confess their feelings to one another; the Storm Hawks developed their skills, learned to survive, built new weaponry, discovered new terras, prepared themselves for that final battle they knew was to come soon. And right on cue, Cyclonis tore their world apart, tore the world of the Sky Knight apart; the beginning of the end for Aerrow came with the return of the one man whose laugh still haunts his dreams to this day: _the_ _Dark Ace._

Cyclonis used all of her crystal mastery to resurrect him; well, what was left of him… and it _did_ work – but not without a price. The Dark Ace paid for his second life, and he paid dearly; after all, you cannot return from the dead without making sacrifices, and the Dark Ace sacrificed _everything _for his master, he sacrificed his _soul. _The man Cyclonis brought back was not the feared Cyclonian warrior, instead he was broken and scarred, tormented by his own existence, not knowing if he was alive or dead; haunted by the memories of his demise, suffering from years of existing without a body, floating between worlds, experiencing the pain of being abandoned... One thing had to be said though, the man Cyclonis brought back was ten times more deadly; when you don't have a soul, why should you care what happens to you? When you don't have a soul, you've already reached the epitome of suffering, there's nothing else to fear anymore… and that was all his master ever really cared about in the end; that and the fact that he remained as loyal to her as ever… at first.

And then, after two years had passed, it was finally time to return home; it was finally time for the ultimate battle for the Atmos, and this time, the Storm Hawks were more than ready. Neither side could afford to lose. Cyclonis, during her travels on the far side, had discovered the legendary Hypno Stone, a rare crystal with the power to possess and control the minds of any individual; but that was not enough for her, until she ruled the Atmos, it would never be enough.

On her return from the Far Side, she rebuilt her Storm Engine, planning to use it to enhance the power of the Hypno Stone and control everyone, everywhere; there would be no resistance, no one to stop her, there would be only victory.

Except, one team dared to stand in her way: the Storm Hawks, hot in pursuit of the Master, willing her defeat. In the end though, it all came down to one person…

…_Piper_.

Aerrow doesn't know what happened exactly in the throne room during that last crucial hour of the war, there's only two people in the entire Atmos who know what truly took place, and neither is in a state to tell their story; the only thing that Aerrow is certain of is that he failed in his duty to protect his team, his navigator sacrificed everything because he could do nothing.

When the Storm Hawks returned from the Far Side, they told the Sky Council everything; welcomed as heroes, every squadron in the entire Atmos was behind them, ready for war, prepared to fight for one last time; and no one was more prepared than Piper, Aerrow hadn't realised that until it was too late, it chills him to the bone to think that she knew what would happen all along…

… _and she went through with it anyway._

He looks at her blank, expressionless face, thinking about what the girl must have experienced in those last moments; he remembers the explosion, the Dark Ace fleeing from the scene, the sight that awaited the Sky Knight once he'd finally managed to clamber through the rubble and debris… his Piper, broken beyond repair.

An investigation into what happened concluded that both Crystal Mages had been locked in a vicious and spectacular battle that had resulted in the eruption of the crystal; somehow, probably thanks to her own crystal-wielding capabilities, Piper had resisted the powerful calling of the Hypno Stone, somehow she had gotten close enough to destroy it and in doing so, had released the Atmos from its command. But you can't destroy something that powerful without consequences; all that power stored in that one stone would have had to have been released, and you don't usually leave huge explosions unscathed…

Except, it wasn't that they were physically damaged, oh no; the stone had destroyed something much more valuable, the stone destroyed their sanity.

Piper and Cyclonis lost their minds that day in the blast. These days, five years after that terrible event, Cyclonis is no longer a great and feared master; instead, she sits in the same ward as Piper, insane, terrified of everything, no longer able to communicate with the world around her, a shadow of her former self. As for Piper… well, all that is left of Piper sits before Aerrow now; she is not unstable, she is not dangerous, she is not scared or forgetful or dazed – she is _nothing._ Piper can no longer react with the world around her, when someone speaks to her she doesn't listen, when someone touches her she doesn't even notice; she just sits there, blank and empty.

Everyone has given up on her recovery, even Aerrow feels that his visits are pointless at times; at first many believed that she would recuperate, that somehow because of how different her behaviour was to that of Cyclonis, she had managed to protect herself from the full scale of the explosion and that eventually she would piece herself back together. But five years have passed and Piper is the same now as she was in those first hours of being recovered from the wreckage of Cyclonia.

The Storm Hawks don't visit as often as they used to; not because they don't care, it's because they _do,_ to see the once vibrant and lively Piper turned into a ghostly shell of a person is too horrifying, too upsetting for them to cope with. Only Aerrow visits regularly; whenever he has time to spare, he will fly to Terra Atmosia and spend hours in the room with the white-washed walls and the vases of flowers and the girl he used to know.

And he knows she isn't coming back to him; so why does he bother?

Because.

Because sometimes there is a flash of life in her dazzling amber eyes, because sometimes Piper returns; just for a moment, there is a spark of recognition, for just a second she is aware of who she is and where she is and what happened to her. And then they are gone, but they were still there, long enough for Aerrow to see them. And that, to the Sky Knight, is all that matters; that there is _still_ something _there. _

When Piper had first been brought into the ward, Finn had had the surprisingly clever idea that maybe presenting her with artefacts she would recognise might jog her memory; they tried reading from her log book, tried showing her the maps and reference charts she'd created and used so many times before… and then, they presented her with a crystal. That was when everything changed. Because Piper **did **react, just not in the way that everyone expected…

There was such jubilation when it became apparent that the navigator recognised the green crystal sitting in Aerrow's hand, the Storm Hawks and the Doctors all stood around her, holding their breath and watching intently as she stretched out her hand and picked up the jewel with her delicate fingers; she held it up to the light, her expression one of confusion and curiosity, she _knew_ what it was… she _remembered_ who _she_ was… and then, she smashed it. Her move was so quick and so volatile that no one had anticipated it, with sudden precision she slammed her fist and the crystal into the edge of her desk and it broke clean in two; there was silence in the room as everyone stared, horrified and dumbfounded as the girl studied the two pieces intently as though searching for something hidden with its glass casing. Whatever it was, Piper did not find it and as soon as this became apparent to her, she slipped back into nothingness, her eyes glazing over once more whilst her spectators recovered from their shock.

Apparently such a response was a serious breakthrough, the Doctors theorised that perhaps it was her way of reacting to her current state, that she was aware that it was a crystal that had done this to her in the first place; for the next few months, different crystals would be presented to her in a series of tests to see if she would respond any differently; to see if, over time, she would gradually begin to rebuild her awareness of other things.

But nothing changed.

Whenever she came close to a crystal, she would attempt to destroy it, all she seemed to want to do was smash them into pieces, sift through the fragments and then give up when, whatever she was searching for, was nowhere to be found. Over time, it was agreed that crystals were only aggravating her condition and that she should not be allowed any near them… this saddened Aerrow to the point where he almost lost hope, because what was Piper without her crystals?

But then there is one particular thing that keeps his hope alive, one small gesture that makes him certain that all is not lost, _not yet anyway_.

During the battle, Piper must have lost the crystal that hung around her neck; this knowledge is a source of great frustration and misery for the Sky Knight even now, five years later, because it was he who gave her that necklace when they were children, as a gift to her on her fifth birthday. She had treasured it for over ten years, and now it is lost, just as Piper is lost. But at the same time, it is a sign of hope for the young boy; because Piper _knows _that it is lost. From time to time, quite out of the blue, the girl will raise her hand to her throat and caress the place it use to rest, and she will sigh when she realises that it is not there…

Piper knows that she is nothing without her crystals; Piper knows that something is not right.

Now, all of Aerrow's prayers rest with the discovery of that crystal; because something is telling him that it is important, something is telling him that he _has_ to find it. And then he remembers why, because Piper had tried to tell him about it, on that fateful night before the battle…

"_Aerrow, I need you to look after something for me…"_

No! Not that! Anything but that!

The Sky Knight shakes himself from his daydream and jumps to his feet; he is growing tired, his memories are trying to force their way to the surface of his mind. He decides that it's time to leave; he has to do something, _anything_ to make sure he doesn't remember that night. _Anything_.

But then he feels his heart tear in two, he wants to leave but cannot bear to be parted from her, it's too much to know he may not see her for another week, another month… who knows? Cautiously, he moves closer to Piper's chair, she hasn't reacted to his sudden movements but as he approaches, he watches, enthralled, as her hand reaches up to her neck and strokes the empty space. As she begins to lower her hand back to her lap again, he catches it gently and squeezes it before crouching down to look up into her face; the tears prickle at the back of his eyes again, the pain is unbearable but he fights it back down, he will cry later when he is alone.

"I'm going now, Piper." He whispers to her, his voice is deeper than it once was when he was a boy; it reveals his strain and distress and makes him sound weary and old. He doesn't want to leave her, but he must. One single tear escapes and flows over his cheek. "I'll see you soon, I promise; in a week or so, okay?"

Piper does not reply, she never replies. Aerrow sighs sadly, squeezes her hand tighter to try and emphasise the magnitude of his next chosen words, the words he always says as he leaves.

"I love you, Piper. Please come back to me."

And with that he lets her hand fall back to its original place, stands and strides to the door, fighting to hold himself together; he takes one last glance at the girl behind, teetering on the threshold, as though being pulled from one reality to another before taking a deep breath and pacing away down the corridor, leaving the lost navigator to her empty existence once again.

For just a few minutes, tears will rise in Piper's eyes and will roll down her dark cheeks without her even noticing as the words of the Sky Knight echo in the silent, lonely room.

"_Please come back to me."_


	2. Checkmate

**Author's Note: first things first, thank you SO MUCH to everyone who reviewed the first chapter; you're who I have to thank for my dedication to getting this story finished before I start anything else. so thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! second point: second chapter is HERE and it's a little different to the first; the whole fic isn't completely Aerrow/Piper centric, naturally it has to have other elements in it to develop the plot line. I didn't want it to be obviously simple, Aerrow saves the day and Piper recovers yadda yadda; the Dark Ace has to come into it, he's a key character. Can you spot hints in this one for later chapters? The scene is set now, you've seen it through the eyes of two damaged soldiers and things are just about to pick up into the racy plot :) enjoy ladies and gents :) don't forget to tell me if you see any errors, i will rectify them immediately! **

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Checkmate

Hidden deep within the morning shadows of the tumbling ruins of Cyclonia, something stirs restlessly, a gloomy figure shrouded in darkness and engulfed in hatred; as the sun rises in the sky, its bright beams turned blood red as it passes through the crimson clouds, it slowly reveals a hunched and crooked man, curled into a ball and resting on the seat of Cyclonis' throne. His ebony black hair hangs over his ageing face but still his ruby eyes pierce through the darkness, flitting insanely in their sockets, twitching and rolling; he curses as the sun finally hits him, it is a wake-up call that he does not wish to receive and he holds up a hand to block the rays from hitting his fragile eyes, a hand that is pale and covered with scars.

Shaking himself, the creature lurches from his position and throws his legs off the side of the throne to hang over the edge, he pulls himself forward and leans over, resting his elbows on his knees; his muscles spasm and ache and he groans a little as he begins to stretch his limbs. Finally, he calms and his head clears; as he inhales deeply, he stretches backward, lifts his head to the crumbling ceiling and runs his fingers over his face… a face too horrific to bear looking at…

It is the face belonging to the Dark Ace, or whatever remains of that infamous man. He catches his reflection in a shattered mirror resting on the floor beside him and realises that even _he_ doesn't recognise himself anymore...

That thought makes the man chuckle, but it is bitter laughter born from suffering and torment; as his mind wanders, his fingers caress the arm rests of the throne he sits in, the wood is singed and charred, blackened by a battle that took place here five years ago. It is a battle that no one has forgotten, and yet here stands Cyclonia, steadily crumbling into the wastelands below – the terra has been forgotten… and here sits the soldier, patiently waiting for his own demise, for the time when he will crumble into dust – he has been forgotten… and then there is his master, sitting in a ward across the other side of Atmos, her mind warped and ripped open – even _she_ has been forgotten. The rusting Storm Engine beside the lonely talon is now the only remaining evidence of his former master's final and ultimate failure…

The Dark Ace smiles; _serves her right. _

This talon is no longer a loyal footman to the once great Cyclonis, in fact his loyalty ceased to exist the moment he realised that her end had come, that moment when the final battle resulted in victory for the _Storm Hawks_. He recalls the name with disgust, but these days he hates his master more; …why? Because…

Because it was not at the hands of those annoying teenagers that he came to be the man he is today, oh no; all credit for that belongs to Cyclonis, all of the blame rests with her, and yet she never cared. She destroyed him, she _murdered_ him… shattered him into a thousand fragments and abandoned him.

Carefully, he scrutinises his reflection and the cynical smile disappears from his face; instead he shudders inwardly and his upper lip curls. What he sees mortifies him, a pallid face riddled with hundreds of raised silver scars, like a ghostly gossamer web across his thin flesh; it as though he is a china doll, broken and glued together haphazardly by a child. He is like glass; fragile and brittle. He is the way he is because of her, because of what she did to him...

That is why he left her to her fate; that is why, when he and Aerrow, locked in a frenzied battle of their own, heard the screams of the two Crystal Mages and felt the trembling aftershock of the explosion, he fled. He abandoned her because she had abandoned him…

…except, the Dark Ace was not made to lead; he was made to be subservient, to serve only his master. His existence is pointless, there is nothing for him now; his master is no more and without her he is nothing…

_Nothing._

The man is torn between two worlds, he both hates and loves Cyclonis, the woman he owes his life to and the woman who destroyed him; when he first returned he was so angry, so furious at who he had become that he was blinded with rage… when he had fled into the wastelands, he rejoiced in the feeling of contentment he experienced at finally achieving the revenge he had long since dreamed of.

And yet, when the Dark Ace learnt of her condition, his pride turned into shame; death was final, but the fate of Cyclonis was far, far worse… she became like him: empty, hollow, tormented… she was forgotten just as he was. And the Dark Ace does not wish that fate on anyone. Now, her suffering has heightened his suffering; regardless of how much he longs to be independent, to be free of his past life… he can never escape, Cyclonis made him who he is, she never intended for him to be free. His loyalty rests with Cyclonia, no matter how much he resists; now he must have his master back, before he loses his mind as well…

But how to do that? The only person capable of such a feat is Cyclonis herself and she is in no fit state to do so. So what can he do? Who else is there?

And then he remembers.

_Piper._

Again there is that experience of colliding feelings, he despises her for what she did to his master and at the same time reveres her for it; everyone used to focus on the talents of her Sky Knight, _she_ was always overlooked, no one thought her capable of anything. And yet it had been she who had ultimately ended the reign of Cyclonia, _twice_ actually, the Dark Ace admits to himself; she was always a subservient child, loyal to Aerrow, annoyingly intelligent but always prepared to sacrifice herself for him. As much as it pains him to admit it, Piper reminds the talon of himself, the forgotten victim of the war; everyone always congratulates that foolish Sky Knight with the victory – but what about _her_? She lost everything – no – she **gave** everything in order to help her leader, just as the Dark Ace had done for Cyclonis, and they had both been _used_… they were pawns on a giant chess board, sacrificed for the gain of the King and Queen.

Now the Dark Ace is King, and he is ready to make his final move; he controls the board and this time, the knight will be the pawn in his game. He knows that the Sky Knight will do anything to get his navigator back, and the Dark Ace will do anything for a leader – he needs someone to tell him what to do just as Aerrow needs someone to guide him. The mind of Cyclonis may be lost, but what if there were a way to solve that problem? Who said he needs Cyclonis back completely? He just needs a master…

Sacrifice is a very powerful thing, because once you've given everything away, you gain an understanding of the concept; you can exploit the willingness of others to sacrifice themselves and you know the minds of the desperate fools who will do anything for love and you can use that to your advantage, because _you_ were once one of them...

A cruel smile stretches across the marked face of the shadowed man as his fingers slip into the pouch attached to his waist and come into contact with the smooth surface of a crystal buried within it; the Dark Ace has sacrificed everything, now it's someone else's turn, he has a plan, and soon, he will have a master…

Decided on his course of action, he jumps to his feet and paces through the dilapidated throne room, avoiding the rubble strewn across the weakened floor, and clambers onto his skimmer; it is rusting and damaged as most things are in this place, but she is a loyal contraption and the Dark Ace cannot help but feel the pride swell in his chest as he starts up her engine without any problems. He turns and speeds away through the corridors, weaving his way in and out of rooms all empty and deserted; finally, he finds the skimmer bay and exits it onto the runway. Picking up speed, he launches into the blood red sky and rockets away from the abandoned terra, the terra that will soon see the rise of a new and glorious empire…

***

The vibrant, golden sun in the clear blue sky blinds the man as he slips through the busy streets of Terra Atmosia, face hidden behind his thick black hair and hooded cloak to avoid being recognised; not that that is very likely, most assume him dead, that the collapse of Cyclonia was too much for him and that he ended his own life in grief or shame. Just the thought of that makes the Dark Ace snort contemptuously, some people have no idea; they just flit through their pointless existences, wrapped up in their own pathetic lives and it makes him _sick_.

He turns a corner, knocking an elderly man out of his way as he does so who staggers away cursing; the Dark Ace ignores him, instead he looks up to the Beacon Tower and feels the bitterness rising in his chest as he gazes at the electric blue glow of the Aurora Stone from within, it is the symbol of hope for the entire Atmos, but for him… for him it is the symbol of his first failure. His defeat at the hands of Aerrow all those years ago, you could even say that things went downhill from there; maybe from that point, when their blades clashed together for the first time, his fate was sealed. How the talon regrets not killing that annoying child at that moment, instead he listened to that last shred of humanity within him, saw himself as a young and naïve Storm Hawk cadet in the boy's green eyes, ... after that first defeat, the Dark Ace learned to never show pity again.

"_This time, no mercy…"_

The hospital is perfectly visible just before the Beacon Tower, it is a white washed building with golden doors and vibrant flowers pathing the walkway to the entrance; but as he approaches, the Dark Ace can see quite clearly the thick bars covering each window, acting as a poignant reminder for anyone passing by as to what characters sit within the confinements of the four walls. Just before he enters through the gilded doorway, he pulls out a violet Chroma crystal and activates it; in a second, his red eyes turn emerald green and his ebony hair turns midnight blue, he catches a glimpse of his face in the glass and scowls as he sees that his scars are still visible, no crystal, however powerful will ever hide his past..

Once inside, he removes his cloak and throws it over his shoulder, and with an air of purpose he strides past the marble reception; the blonde haired girl sitting the other side looks up at him from her files but says nothing, either because his confident stance and scars make him appear as though he belongs, or because they scare her into silence. Either works for him.

As he makes his way deeper into the building, the atmosphere becomes suffocating; the forced cheerfulness of the place makes him uncomfortable and he feels his heartbeat quickening as his adrenaline begins to pump; a doctor is heading towards him, there's nowhere to hide, he only hopes she won't see him. But even as he thinks this, she looks up; she is a girl with dark blue eyes and mousey-coloured hair that reaches her shoulders; the Dark Ace's stomach drops as he recognises her, it is that irritating grandchild of hat equally irritating old man known as Wren…

"Can I help you?" Her accent is strong but beautiful and the talon feels his smile widen as he realises that she can't see through his flimsy disguise, his scars make him seem like a patient; Dove takes his relieved smile as a sign that he is glad of some assistance and reaches forward to touch his elbow. "Is there someone you're trying to find?"

The Dark Ace nods, feigning timidity; "Y-yes… I can't find the other p-patients…"

Dove smiles, "they're in the garden," she answers; "Would you like me to take you to them?"

After the talon nods eagerly, the pretty Doctor links their arms together and leads him down the corridor she appeared from to another set of glass doors leading out into a lush garden; she asks him if he wants her to find any of the attendants to help him but he declines the offer, he can manage "thank you". Dove smiles and leaves him standing on the patio, basking in the sunlight whilst discreetly scanning his surroundings; patients are dotted here and there, many being tended to by a nurse, all being encouraged to do this or that: smell the flowers, watch the butterflies, interact with the others. He hears the patronising tones in their voices and it sickens him, grown men and women being talked to as though they are children, what kind of life is this that they have? Wouldn't it be easier to just end their embarrassing existence and save them the shame?

Shaking off his thoughts, the Dark Ace explores, weaving through the bushes, searching for his targets; _they have to be here somewhere…_

"Come on Piper, give her the flower; come on, she won't bite."

His attention is caught, swiftly, he dives amongst the shrubbery and peers into the opening he has walked across; an elderly nurse is standing over two young women, one strapped into a wheelchair and the other perched on a stone bench, trying to make the darker skinned girl hand a flower to the other without much luck. The girl's wrist simply falls lifelessly to the bench whenever the woman lets go and neither of the two patients look particularly interested in interacting with one another; the one fastened into the chair is apparently more interested in scratching away at the flesh on her red-raw breasts, something the nurse attempts to stop with a sharp slap to her hand. Seeing this, the blood of the Dark Ace boils and he cracks his knuckles angrily. This is what his master has been degraded to? This is how they treat Cyclonis, once the most-feared figure in the entire Atmos??

This place truly is mad…

The girl sitting on the bench is Piper, the talon recognises her in an instant with her midnight blue hair and tangerine eyes; she is thinner than he last saw her, but she has the figure of a fully fledged woman, with curves and hips to wet any man's appetite, even the Ace finds himself staring for a second. Whilst the nurse attends to Cyclonis, who is now bleeding from her freshly scratched wounds, Piper sits silent, her eyes glazed over and her expression distant; she is more welcoming to look at in comparison to the blithering, dribbling wreck that is Cyclonis, her black hair falling over her hollow face and her skin blotchy with ghastly self-inflicted wounds. In this moment, the Dark Ace can see the victor; the navigator of the Storm Hawks had far more power than his master ever did, far more bravery too… after all, she had been willing to give it all away.

He is decided. The plan is made. As he stares, reflecting over his memories, the Dark Ace prepares to make his first move; Piper is the key, as she has been so many times before, she is the piece that the scarred man will guard with his life. She is the Queen and he is the King, and this time, Aerrow and Cyclonis will be the pawns in their final match; this time, the victims shall stand victorious.

He walks out of his hiding place and paces forward, the sounds of his footsteps attract the attention of the nurse but neither of her two patients show any recognition of the approaching soldier; slightly baffled, the old woman peers into the unfamiliar green eyes looking down upon her, but she takes in the scars and makes the same assumption as Dove.

"Oh, have you come to play with your friends?"

_Mad old cow_, her condescending banter, as though she is talking to a two-year old, sickens the Dark Ace who pulls from his pocket the Chroma crystal and raises it high; Piper's attention has been caught, the sight of a crystal encouraging her unusual behaviour to begin again. The nurse is confused, she pushes her grey matted fringe from her face and frowns, not quite realising the seriousness of the stone in his palm.

"Now young man," she begins, wagging a finger at him, "I don't know where you got that but you mustn't bring it here; you'll upset Piper, she doesn't like crystals."

"_Please"_, hisses the Dark Ace as he rolls his eyes, "you don't know anything, do you, old woman?" His tone scares the nurse slightly who takes a step back, Cyclonis has begun to scratch herself again but Piper is transfixed, watching the gleaming crystal in the talon's tight grasp. "You don't know anything at all…"

"Wh-who are y-you!?"

The talon deactivates the crystal and his true form is revealed and at once, the woman realises her error; from his belt, the Dark Ace pulls out a small blade and holds it towards her, dropping the crystal on the floor. The nurse stumbles backwards, shaking her head in disbelief, paralysed by fear and terror; "no-n-no… please, p-please I beg of y-you! Show mercy, I -"

The woman does not get to finish her sentence, the dagger is already embedded into her throat, she is dead by the time she hits the floor; the Dark Ace wipes the blood from his ragged face, turns to face the two vulnerable women and smiles in triumph. Kicking the body of the nurse away from him, he ignores Cyclonis and kneels in front of Piper whose attention is still upon the crystal hidden within the grass; the talon picks it up, narrows his eyes as he latches on to what she wants and crushes it with his bare hand. The moment he does so, Piper's expression becomes blank once again; the Dark Ace lets the fragments drop to the floor as he returns his attention to the navigator, his soon-to-be Queen.

He has made his first move, now to await the counter attack from the opposing team; but even so, the man knows the outcome, there will be no more failure, his victory has been decided.

With a dark and twisted smile resting upon his taught lips, he looks up into the amber eyes just above him and whispers one word.

"_Checkmate."_


	3. Navigator Lost

**Author's note: argh! this took me longer to post that i had originally planned; many apologies for those who have been waiting patiently, life has been pretty hectic recently what with coursework deadlines and starting a new job, everything has sort of piled on top of everything so i'm completely disorganised. **

**anyway, i digress: here is chapter three! back to Aerrow, and the rest of his team who are now making their first appearance. some more Aerrow/Piper in this one, but that will increase as time passes, you've just got to let things get going :) hope you enjoy this chapter, it's not my best but i think it does the job. :)**

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Navigator Lost

The Condor is quiet that afternoon as it powers through the orange stretch of sky not too far from Terra Atmosia; Aerrow walks the corridor from the bathroom to his bedroom, leaving watery footprints on the floor. Part of his mind flickers to an image of a disapproving Piper, unimpressed by the safety hazard he has caused but he ignores the distressed flutter of his heart; the Sky Knight sees his navigator everywhere, she is always around him and he has grown to accept that he will never be the same without her.

"_Really Aerrow, I suppose you're going to leave that for someone else to dry up?"_

"_Sorry, but hey… if we leave it there, maybe Finn will slip on it?"_

_She laughs, "that's a cruel thing to think."_

"_You're the one laughing."_

The imaginary conversation dies once Aerrow opens the door to his room, just after he passes through the threshold he turns, half expecting to see her still standing there, arms folded and expression disapproving; but there is nothing, no one, just his wet footprints following along behind him. Sighing, he shuts his door and begins to dry his hair vigorously as though nothing had happened whilst Radarr twitches in his sleep, curled up in the blankets on his bed; Aerrow has been training hard all afternoon, something he does whenever he has a free moment – he finds that it helps his concentration and stops his mind from wandering to memories and thoughts that he does not wish to awaken. Unfortunately, just thinking about why he exercises makes him remember so he scrubs himself harder until his skin and scalp begin to redden. Since the loss of Piper, the Sky Knight is a lot colder emotionally than he used to be; he trains because it focuses him, because he has to be in perfect condition, weakness is no longer an option. Piper would want him to be perfect, so Aerrow will punish himself until he is; he will punish himself because if he had been perfect in the first place, maybe Piper would still be there.

"Aerrow, I – oh **shit**, dude! Put some pants on!"

Finn is standing aghast at the now open door to his leader's room, shielding his dark blue eyes from seeing Aerrow's bare body; the Sky Knight scowls, picks up his dropped towel and wraps it around his waist before slamming his fist into the sharp shooter's arm. Was there no such thing as privacy these days???

"Finn! When the door is closed, you _knock! _How hard is it for you to remember that!?"

Carefully removing his hand from his face and now rubbing the place where Aerrow hit him, Finn pulls both a hurt and disgusted expression. After a growth spurt about four years ago, he is taller than the red-head now – and a lot bulkier when it comes to muscle; in fact, he has actually developed into a fairly handsome young man. Nevertheless, never one to disappoint, Finn managed to retain his boyish charm; his deep blue eyes sparkle when he laughs, his golden locks are always perfectly groomed and some stubble grows on his chin and cheeks as part of his attempt to appear more macho for the ladies.

Because boy, does Finn _love_ the ladies.

"Jeesh, sorry man; although I think I came out worse. My beautiful eyes will never see the same again! There go my days as the sharpest sharp shooter in the Atmos!" He feigns a small sob and wipes an imaginary tear from his eye, "Oh what shall I do with myself?!"

Aerrow smirks, "I can think of a few things. One of them involving the wastelands if you can't learn to **knock first!**"

Finn simply shrugs his shoulders and sits down on the Sky Knight's bed heavily before throwing him his clothes; Aerrow frowns when he realises the blonde isn't moving and shifts uncomfortably, he likes his privacy these days… _especially _when he's stark naked.

Unfortunately for him, Finn has no concept of privacy.

The mischievous blonde does however pick up on the Sky Knight's discomfort and he rolls his eyes before looking away and waving a hand in his general direction, "_Dude,_ I promise I won't look!"

Taking the opportunity, Aerrow quickly dresses his bottom half, pulling his old and patchy uniform pants on along with his boots; when Finn finally turns around, he is half way through pulling his shirt on, and now that he feels more comfortable, he can finally look his wingman in the eyes squarely. He knows that Finn came into his room for a purpose and it has become quite obvious that he's grown a little uncomfortable himself at the prospect of what he wishes to ask his leader; quietly, Aerrow sits down beside him and waits for his friend to speak.

Silence ensues for only a minute as Finn rubs the back of his neck and tries to appear casual, planning to say his words cautiously. "So Aerrow, I was uh… wondering if I… uh, could join you on your… next trip to Atmosia? If that's possible, at all?"

_Typical Finn_, always thinking about his needs. "Can you not stop thinking about her for one second?"

For a moment, the sharp shooter looks appalled before cottoning onto Aerrow's meaning, "no Dude, not Dove! Although, no I can't stop thinking about actually… not when she's that great in…" A warning cough from his Sky Knight silences him on that matter permanently and he blushes slightly, "Sorry. No, what I meant was, I want to come with you – to visit Piper… if that's alright with you, I don't want to intrude or anything…"

At once, the sadness washes back over Aerrow; it was nice talking to someone at times, especially Finn, he could always turn a dreary moment into a hysterical palaver without much effort, but just hearing Piper's name turns the atmosphere cold. His friend picks up on the change in mood immediately and places a firm and reassuring hand on Aerrow's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Aerrow, I shouldn't have mentioned it; I won't come, if you'd prefer me not to."

But the Sky Knight shakes his head in protest; "no, no; you should come. It's been a while since she saw someone else; who knows, she may have missed you?" His attempt at humour is weak but Finn smiles warmly.

"You sure we're talking about the same girl here, Sky Knight? Piper wouldn't miss me even if I spontaneously combusted; I drive her crazy, always did – she probably enjoys the peace and quiet."

Aerrow's smile returns slightly and the atmosphere lifts, it's always nice to have Finn around; he matured a lot during those two years on the Far Side, and even before then, he still offered the support the Sky Knight sometimes needed. The sharp shooter took the loss of Piper almost if not as hard as Aerrow did, she had been like a sister to him; sure they may have disagreed on occasions, just like all siblings did, but they loved each other regardless. Sometimes, Aerrow looks into Finn's eyes and sees the regret at never having told her how much she meant to him; something tells the Sky Knight that they all feel like that, as though the whole team never really realised just how important she was until she vanished from their lives…

Yes, Aerrow would like Finn there with him tomorrow; it may ease the burden of having to experience the pain of regret all over again, having someone there to share it with him. Maybe he'll ask Junko and Stork if they'd like to come along too? It's been a while since they all went together as a family, maybe it was time that they did?

"Sure thing, Finn; you can come, I'd be grateful for the company."

Finn is about to reply, but he is cut off before he even opens his mouth by the Condor alarm. In a flash, both men are charging from Aerrow's room, Radarr groggily following from his bed, grumbling a little at the intrusion. Skidding onto the bridge, Stork and Junko are already there; the Merb at the wheel and the Wallop at the communicator, he is picking up a transmission entirely made up of code, a code that the Sky Knight recognises as belonging to the Sky Council of Atmosia. They wait a moment until Junko finishes recording and translating the message, puts down the transmitter and turns back to them. Aerrow's heart judders as he sees how distressed the Wallop looks; his face is drained of its colour and the Wallop jumps in shock as he finally notices his leader standing not far away.

"Junko… what is it?"

Junko looks exceptionally uncomfortable, as well as extremely distraught; whatever news he has received, it is something that he does like, something he knows that his Sky Knight will not like, something really, _really_ bad…

Finn is grows impatient: "Dude, what's wrong!?" His voice is shaky with anticipation.

The entire team all look desperately at the Wallop who swallows again and rubs the moisture from his brow; "Aerrow, it's… I…" he coughs and summons enough courage to look his leader squarely in the eye, albeit a little sorrowfully. "We've just received a distress message from Terra Atmosia; it's… Aerrow, I'm so sorry… the Dark Ace has been spotted."

There are horrified cries from the entire team. "What?!" "How?!" "Why?"

The Sky Knight has not stopped looking at Junko, he is sure that that is only half the bad news; and something is telling him that he knows why… "Where, Junko?"

"At the Care Centre for Crystal-related Injuries and Incidents…" the Wallop looks desperate, almost pitiable, as though this is all his fault… "Aerrow, there's been an abduction…"

The Sky Knight does not wait for any more information, he is sprinting towards the skimmer bay before he even realises that he's actually moving; Radarr is close behind him, never one to leave his best friend's side. Aerrow's mind picks up those flickering images once more, a fictional Piper running alongside him, that familiar determined expression on her face.

"_What's happened Aerrow?"_

_He doesn't answer her this time, because this time he knows she isn't real._

"_Aerrow, what's wrong?"_

_Still he doesn't reply, the girl fades from his sight; he races on._

The pair charge into the skimmer bay, jump onto Aerrow's skimmer and rocket into the sky without even looking back; all he can hear in his mind is one word, one word that has kept him going these past five years of loneliness... "_Piper". _He cannot lose her again.

***

Back on the deck, the rest of the team are stuck in a stunned silence, all three equally horrified by the news; their Sky Knight has abandoned ship for the navigator none of them have visited in months… the guilt is almost unbearable. Thankfully, Stork recovers quickly, his expression stony but determined; he turns to stare at both Junko and Finn; "well!?" He peers at them from behind his thick black hair, one eye twitching under the pressure of anxiety. "What are you waiting for? **GET AFTER HIM!**"

The Wallop and sharp shooter look confused for another second, there's too much information to take in; but they suddenly pull themselves together and nod in agreement: "…action, right!" The pair follows the actions of Aerrow and soon, the Merb can see their skimmers disappear into the clouds on the horizon in front of the Condor. He sighs and takes to his position again behind the wheel of his lonely ship, turning direction to follow his team; his shoulders are limp in resignation.

"_We're doomed."_

***

By the time Finn and Junko land their skimmers in the courtyard before the care centre on Atmosia, Aerrow has been there for at least ten minutes already, the engine of his skimmer already cool; a crowd has gathered, news of the Dark Ace's appearance has spread quickly and people are eager to know what has happened. As quickly as possible, the friends clamber off their vehicles and rush into the building; unfortunately, their way is barred and the pair skid to a halt, taken aback by the chaos the reception is currently in. Patient, doctors and nurses are all being organised and calmed by the Sky Council and the resident squadron, the Red Eagles now led by Lynn, an old friend of the Storm Hawks; Finn catches sight of her as he scans the area and nods in greeting, she returns the gesture before turning to talk to a blonde haired girl currently in floods of tears. The entire place is in uproar, being taken from their daily routine, the unstable patients are beginning to grow agitated.

The sharp shooter feels his heart plummeting as the faces he is scanning for are nowhere to be seen, Junko picks up on this too.

"Finn… I can't see…"

He doesn't finish his sentence, the sadness forces him into silence, any more words and the Wallop will break down into tears; the blonde places a reassuring hand on his friend's arm and smiles warmly. "It's okay, Junko; I'm sure she'll be okay…." But Finn is lying, and they both know it.

Suddenly, the crowd parts just before them and Dove appears, looking haggard and fatigued, it is obvious that she has been crying but the tears dried up a while ago; the worry on her face disappears a little as her eyes meet Finn's and the two embrace passionately, rather caught in up the anxiety and stress of it all. But after a minute they break apart, the two Storm Hawks can't bear not knowing anymore…

"Dove, where's Aerrow? Is he with Piper? What's happened?"

Her blue eyes drop their gaze to the floor in shame; "it's my fault, I didn't realise… he looked so different, _acted_ so different… oh Finn, Junko! I am so sorry – he took them… he took both of them…"

The pair are confused but Dove simply shakes her head when they open their mouths to question her again and gestures for them to follow her; they do so tentatively, remembering the last time they had made their way down these corridors to see Piper, and the chilling atmosphere to the place. Eventually they come across a door already opened, room 37: Piper's room… – both Storm Hawks stand in horror, not daring to believe what they now know to be truth. Dove guides them in and finally, they notice Aerrow, sitting on the bed with Radarr, holding the white cotton sheets to his face, tears spilling over his cheeks; on their entrance, he looks up and registers their presence but doesn't move, he is too busy drowning in his grief. The sight terrifies them, Aerrow _never _cries…

No one moves, there is an eerie silence that makes everyone uncomfortable, no one knows what to say or what to do; Finn turns back to Dove, he needs guidance, he can't work on initiative a lot of the time. The woman looks back at him and drops her eyes to the floor in shame.

"The Dark Ace managed to slip right through…" her voice is barely a whisper, she doesn't want to admit that she failed her friends; "…he was using a Chroma Crystal, it changed his appearance; his scars were still visible, but I just assumed that they were part of the reason why he was walking around the ward. I don't know all the patients here… so I just assumed!" She begins to raise her voice, but the anger is directed entirely at herself, she is furious for ever being deceived; but as she stands, fist clenched, her eyes sadden as she recalls the rest of the tale. "He found Piper and Cyclonis out in the garden with their nurse; one of our other patients discovered the scene or rather the _mess_ the Dark Ace left behind him, Piper and Cyclonis both missing and the nurse dead… a dagger embedded into her throat."

Finn and Junko shudder with both rage and disgust, but Dove has not finished yet; from her back pocket she retrieves a folded photograph, walks to Aerrow and holds it out to him. Curious, the Sky Knight takes it from her and opens it to the blank side, the side that has been used to write a note in an ink that is suspiciously the colour of blood; after reading, his fists clench the note and he curses under his breath.

_Aerrow,_

_You know where to find me, come alone; let's see if you can save her __this time__._

_Dark Ace _

Finn joins the Sky Knight at his side on Piper's bed, reads the note himself and sighs heavily; "it's a trap, it just has to be…"

"Yeah but," Junko interrupts, "we can't just leave Piper to die; we have to save her…"

Neither Aerrow nor Dove have moved, the latter stands before the Sky Knight, looking down at the red-head and seeing the little lost boy within him quite helpless without the one he cannot live without; she watches tears dropping onto the note and making the words blur into a mess of colour. Slowly, she kneels down, places a finger beneath his chin and coaxes him to look at her, his green eyes are a terrible mixture of pain and sorrow…

"She's gone, Dove; _she's gone…_"

"Turn it over."

The Sky Knight frowns in confusion but does as he is told; turning the slightly tattered note over, he gasps a little as he recognises the photograph on the other side. He is looking down at himself, a lean and youthful fourteen year old with bright eyes and a mess of red hair... his arm wrapped around the waist of a young Piper, holding her close to him, both of them smiling at the camera. Aerrow strokes the image, caught by the innocence in the tangerine eyes; all that seems so very long ago now, he has not seen this picture in years…

"Where did you get this from?"

Dove looks at him firmly, "it was in the box of Piper's items you brought when it became apparent that her stay was to be more permanent; I left it on her bedside table on the first night, I'm not sure why, to keep her company I suppose. In the morning, when I entered, the photograph was no longer where I had placed it, instead it was in her hand; after she was dressed and put at her desk, she finally let it go and allowed me to pin it up on her board… after that, she would never leave the room without it, she always had to have with her, in her pocket… I suppose that that is where the Dark Ace found it..."

Aerrow returns Dove's meaningful stare with a look of disbelief; "why did you never tell me!?"

"Because I didn't want to get your hopes up, you couldn't afford for them to be dashed once more; you were already in so much pain when you looked at her, I couldn't bear to bring the subject up. But now I must, Aerrow, you need to know that there _is_ still hope… Piper has not forgotten you, so you must not forget her. She gave up everything to save this Atmos, I think it's time that she was finally repaid..."

Dove gets back to her feet after one final reassuring squeeze of Aerrow's shoulder, turns and leaves the room with the four Storm Hawks, brushing her hand against Finn's just as she passes him; time passes, no one moves, the silence deepens.

Then, finally, Aerrow stands and turns to face his team: Radarr, Finn and Junko.

"We're going, now."

The remaining three nod; of course they're going; no one abducts a member of _their_ team and lives without ever facing consequences. Aerrow bends down to let Radarr climb onto his shoulder and then leads his team out into the corridor. They enter the reception and see a rather haggard Stork waiting for them, he paces forward and reveals that Lynn has told him what has happened; the Merb turns to his leader, they all do.

"So Aerrow, what's the plan?"

Finally, a smile appears briefly on the Sky Knight's lips and that signature mischievous glint lights up his emerald eyes; Finn and Junko high five at the sight of their leader's expression but Stork groans.

"Let me guess, that means: 'we don't have a plan Stork, unless you consider barging in guns blazing as a plan'... oh boy, we're doomed. But it's worth a try at least… for Piper."

Junko agrees, "For Piper."

Finn nods, "For Piper."

Aerrow looks at the picture still gripped in his hand, those vibrant eyes making his heart flutter; he looks back up at his team and clenches his free fist determinedly in the air: "_for Piper."_


	4. How Many Promises?

**Author's Note: this chapter has taken WAY too long, so i apologise. i won't say much, just a HUGE thank you to anyone who has reviewed/read/is reading/will read/will review ~ you're all my inspiration and the reason i'm working hard to get this completed. chapter five may be some time, i haven't even started it yet...**

**but please, enjoy! ~katiecharlotte,**

* * *

How Many Promises?

The ruins of Cyclonia look particularly unwelcoming tonight, but perhaps that's because Aerrow doesn't know what he's going to find, for all he knows, it could be a lifeless corpse of the woman he loves; he shudders and decides not to think about it, reason is telling him that the Dark Ace took her for a purpose, he just hopes that it's something to do with keeping Piper alive.

The intercom on his skimmer crackles and Finn's voice is heard faintly over the rumbling of the thunderous clouds overhead, "you alright, Sky Knight?"

"Naturally," he replies, voice level; admittedly he feels better having the company, but he's not about to tell him that. Sometimes Aerrow likes to think of himself as a lone wolf, independent and strong; but there are times when he realises just how much he needs and relies on his team, and then there are the times when he realises that he doesn't tell them that very often.

But now is not the time for reflection or regret, he hasn't got the Storm Hawks with him so he'll just have to deal with it; the worst case scenario: he doesn't make it back to the Condor, but his team survive; Aerrow can cope with that, as long as he saves the remainder of his friends then he won't have let everyone down that he cares about.

Shame that the one person he cares most for is the one in the greatest danger…

Aerrow lands his skimmer gracefully at one of the decaying docking stations and races through into the vehicle bay; a quick scan of his surroundings leads him to decide to walk the rest of the way, fearing that many of the corridors aren't in good enough shape to carry the weight of his own bike. He's on his own from here.

"Okay Finn, I've landed; no more communications from here on. You got that?"

"Yes'sir." The sharp-shooter hesitates, his voice becomes a little more edgy, "…but if anything goes wrong, Aerrow… don't forget to call us, the Condor and her crew are ready and waiting to come and save your ass."

"If anything goes wrong Finn, it is **your** duty to get you and the team out of here; if I don't make it back, you better get some training in if you're to enrol as a Sky Knight."

"Don't be stupid Aerrow, Radarr has more chances of becoming a Sky Knight than I have," an indignant squeak in the background tells him that his friend agrees, the blonde struggles to get his words out for a moment and then says softly: "you'll make it back, and so will Piper…"

'_I promised Piper a similar thing once… and look what happened to her.'_

With that, Aerrow severs communications; he doesn't feel like saying what he's thinking and instead walks away from his skimmer into the shadows of Cyclonia, feeling his way through the corridors and keeping to the darkness as much as possible. This is the first time he's been here in five years but his memory has served him well and he makes his way towards the throne room with very few problems; unfortunately, his memories are a little too vivid…

"_Come now Aerrow, we've been doing this for years… isn't it about time you quit?"_

"_Storm Hawks never quit, that's only cowardly talons! Why are you working for her anyway? After what she did to you… just look at yourself, you're a __**mess**__!"_

_The Dark Ace falters, he catches a glimpse of his reflection in his blade and stops completely, as though stunned by what he sees; cautiously, he raises a finger to his cheek and runs it across the silver web of scars, smearing flesh blood across it as he does so. His crimson eyes dart back towards the Sky Knight._

"_I have nothing else, just her – isn't that the same for you?"_

"So Aerrow, you came…"

The voice forces the Sky Knight back into the present day and he quickly pulls his blades from their resting place upon his shoulders; scanning the area, he finds that he has successfully found the throne room, or at least… the remainders of it. It is dark, save for the glow from his weapons and a single beam of light from the shattered window above that illuminates the throne standing proudly in the centre, the only real surviving item in sight. Because the man resting upon it is about as broken as the terra itself… Aerrow would feel pity, if this were not the man responsible for destroying his life on more than one occasion.

"Dark Ace." He spits the word from his mouth but the talon pays no attention, instead he thumbs the tip of his energy sword casually with a bemused look on his face; he is trying hard not to smile. Aerrow grips his blades tighter with frustration; he has no time for games, he is no longer a child, he will not be messed with. He is here for one reason and one reason only: "Where is she?"

At this the Dark Ace looks up and the Sky Knight feels those cold blood red eyes cutting right through him, there's something about the man that frightens him, it's as though he isn't really a man… not any longer at least. He's more like an animal, or a demon, something not quite natural; he's _wrong_…

"Nothing like a little conversation these days, is there? I would have thought that you would have at least asked me how I am seeing as we haven't seen each other in… five years, is it?"

The Sky Knight scowls, "I kind of enjoyed the peace and quiet; and besides, I only need to look at you to see you're still as warped as you used to be."

"A little more so, I should imagine." The Dark Ace gets to his feet and marches quite proudly down the stone steps from the throne to his enemy below, his energy blade now resting in its usual place along his back; he could almost pass off as normal, but his scars reflect the light from up above and make him look practically transparent. He seems aware of this, and revels in it. "Five years of darkness could turn anyone mad, even the bravest Sky Knight, I think."

Aerrow is aware of being sucked in to the man's mind games; he breathes deeply. "I will not ask again: where… is… she?"

"Don't you mean, '_where are they_?'"

"Frankly I don't give a damn about Cyclonis; I want Piper, and you are going to give her back to me. So, **where – is – she**!"

The talon and Sky Knight, standing face to face, are practically the same height now and though Aerrow wields his blades threateningly, the Dark Ace still retains that half amused look about him; he casually steps back and gestures with one hand towards the end of the room to the window that used to look out onto the terra; all it is now is a smashed window frame, but the red-head is not interested in the view, his attention has been consumed by the terribly-familiar machine just before it… or rather, the girl sealed inside it.

"_Piper!"_

He races forward, transfixed on his navigator sitting calmly in the glass dome above the machinery, eyes glazed over and face calm, just like always; but as he approaches, his pulse quickens as he realises that she is aware of his movement, her amber eyes follow him though she makes no reaction. Aerrow reaches a hand up in the air towards her rather desperately, she but does not move, she just sits and stares; but the Sky Knight can see something in her eyes, it is a glimpse of fear. For a moment, he sees red and prepares his blades to smash the fragile walls of her prison…

"I wouldn't do that if I were you…"

Aerrow turns momentarily to sneer at the approaching Dark Ace, "and why is that?"

"Come on Aerrow, do you really think that little of me? Perhaps you think that my past experiences have left me soft and simple? Do you honestly think that I would just leave her there for you take from me so _easily_? You smash that glass and you will trigger the machines defence mechanism… and by that I mean, the thing will create an extremely powerful energy field that destroys anything in contact with it. Now I know that you're quick, but you're not that quick… Piper would be fried in seconds – and quite dead."

The Sky Knight's heart drops and his hands holding the weapons fall to his sides, just thinking about Piper dying is enough to scare him; it is as though he is resigned to his fate, it is clear to him now that Piper was indeed just the bait, and Aerrow has walked into a trap that he doesn't not yet fully understand…

"Dark Ace… what do you want?"

The man with the crimson eyes and gossamer scars grins from ear to ear, making his skin crack and shimmer rather repulsively: "I want a master; unfortunately the only girl up to the job isn't feeling herself at the minute and so I need to fix her. As it so happens, the only way to do that is to rebuild the stone that made her that way in the first place; now, I don't know much about crystals or stones… but Piper did, and the only one who knew Piper as well as she did herself is _you_, Aerrow."

The Sky Knight stares open-mouthed; "… you want me to _rebuild_ the Hypno Stone? Are you aware of how _impossible_ that is?"

"Oh I don't think it is, Aerrow; I think that Piper knew what she was doing when she came here to destroy that stone – and I think that you _know_ that that is the case. Your navigator was the kind of girl who was obsessed with the "_Most! Perfect! Plan! Ever"_" and I don't think that she would have gone into battle knowing her own fate without even trying to come up with a remedy. Sadly for her, she had a few shoddy friends who weren't quite clever enough to realise this… or maybe…" the talon peers at Aerrow as he pauses, reading the young man's face as though trying to gage his reaction; "…maybe it wasn't a case of not knowing that Piper had a backup plan, maybe it's the fact that you _do_ know that she had a backup plan that has led you to remain silent all this time. Because you don't know what it is, you just know she had one… tell me, Sky Knight… did Piper ever try and confide in you? Was there something she wanted to tell you but never did? And was it _your _fault that she never did so? Is that why you visit her all the time? Because you feel guilty? It must be difficult knowing that if you had just spared five minutes of your time, the girl sitting a metre away from you this very second could have been saved… How many promises have you made to that girl that never came true?"

Aerrow tries to drown out the Dark Ace's words but it's no good, his memories are bubbling at the surface, trying to force their way into the front of his mind; they bring with them, the anguish and pain that the Sky Knight has tried to bury for five years…

"_Aerrow, I need you to look after something for me…"_

No… no, not again… not now… not here… not ever! He cannot bear to remember…

The Dark Ace looks at him and places a firm hand on his enemy's shoulder; the Sky Knight, so consumed in his own self-deprecation, doesn't even flinch at the contact. It is a bizarre moment, where the man who has the potential to ruin his life stands like a fatherly figure above him. "Aerrow," there is a hint of feeling in the man's voice, is it pity? "Aerrow, you can bring her back – I have just given you an incentive. You wanted to save her life, now you have no choice but to, in more ways than one. Piper will have recorded every last detail she knew about that stone, and you are going to follow up on every lead you possibly can – you are going to bring me that stone…"

"But you'll just use it to bring Cyclonis back," the Sky Knight's voice is scared, he has reverted back into the child of years ago.

"And you will use it to bring Piper back," smiles the talon, "it's a win, win scenario for both of us… and it isn't as though you have a choice."

There is nothing but silence for a minute or so as the two men stand facing each other, one beaming insanely, the other trembling with anger and fear; Aerrow doesn't know what to do, reason is telling him to end this all now, to finish the Dark Ace whilst he still has the chance to do so. But his heart is not listening to reason; it's breaking under the strain of looking into those amber eyes and believing that maybe, just _maybe_… he can bring Piper back again. He looks up at her, she is gazing at him blankly; what if, one day, she will remember him? What if he could give her, her life back? If he could make it up to her for not listening?

His mind is made up.

The Sky Knight turns to the talon determinedly; "one condition."

His peer eyes the red-head cautiously, they are almost level in height and Aerrow's posture makes him look that little bit more powerful than the broken Dark Ace; the man feels a small amount of respect towards his enemy, but he hides it well. "You're not really in the position to bargain, Sky Knight; but I will allow you this one thing…"

Aerrow doesn't even falter, "if I fail, you let her go."

The Dark Ace laughs sharply, "well then, what will I receive in compensation for your failure? I'm not quite sure that I'd like to get rid of my only bargaining chip here…"

"You can take me, instead. Release her, finish me."

The silence takes hold again, but this time it is not because of discomfort, it is because of disbelief; the Dark Ace is taken aback by Aerrow's resignation. "You mean, you will put your life in the place of Piper's? Regardless of whether you can bring her back or not?"

"Exactly, there's _your_ win, win scenario; Dark Ace. I succeed, you get your master back; I fail, you get me – but Piper is released."

The Cyclonian ponders this offer for a moment, then smiles, baring his yellow fangs; he holds out his hand to the Sky Knight, who takes it firmly. "Very well, Aerrow of the Storm Hawks, it's a deal."

The pair shake quickly and then release each other, unable to stand the close contact that is so against their nature; Aerrow takes one more darting look up towards his navigator, sealed in her glass prison and then turns and runs away – he cannot waste any more time. His head is raging with so many different questions; he doesn't even know if he is doing the right thing, perhaps he could have just killed the Dark Ace then and found a way to get Piper out of the chamber unharmed… After all, he should hate the man for putting her into this situation in the first place; he has risked her life to lure him into his little game, so shouldn't he be angry?

But the fact of the matter is that Aerrow is not angry, instead he is desperate; this is his last chance to bring Piper back, and he cannot fail her again…

The Dark Ace watches Aerrow leave and then smiles evilly, turning his attentions to the dark-skinned jewel in captivity; "yes, little Sky Knight, run – even though it won't do you any good. I will have a master, but you may not have a navigator… you failed her just as Cyclonis failed me, and now, Piper and I shall have our revenge upon you _both_."

* * *

"Are you **mad**? You want to _build_ the Hypno Stone? _Build it? _As in, **the** Hypno Stone? The stone capable of destroying the minds of the two most powerful Crystal Mages in the Atmos?"

"Is there another Hypno Stone then?"

"Don't be stupid, Finn. At least, don't be as stupid as Aerrow here; honestly, "_build a new Hypno Stone_"… do you realise how suicidal that is? And how do we know that the Dark Ace will stick to his word? And why on earth would you offer to take Piper's place when you fail…"

"- **should** I fail, Stork."

"No, Aerrow; **when** you fail. Because there's no way that you can create such a powerful crystal; it's just not possible. Stones like that are formed, not created by hand; plus, it was **one of a kind**, that usually means that if you destroy it, you're probably not going to find another one just lying about."

The Sky Knight puts up with his helmsman and his ranting for another half an hour, patiently waiting until the merb has come to his conclusion, one revolving around the word 'doom' an awful lot and creating the impression that any action of Aerrow's will lead to disastrous consequences. Finn, Junko and Radarr listen in too, but they seemed less concerned with the dangers; as far as the Sky Knight can tell, they're pro "find the Hypno Stone".

Finally, Stork finishes his speech and turns to his leader to see him staring into space; the merb sighs as he realises that no amount of reasoning is going to change Aerrow's mind and deep down, he knows that really, he doesn't want to...

Anything for Piper, she would do the same for them, after all. In fact, she _did…_

"_Fine_, I can see that nothing I say will stop you from trying. But just _how_ exactly are we going to do this?"

"Piper will help." Aerrow's answer is a certain one, "there are things she knew, things she prepared for… whatever research she did on the stone will help us to discover a way of recreating its power; I'm sure of it. I'm going to search her lab, there _has_ to be something in there that can tell us where to go. Whilst I do that… Finn, Junko, prepare the skimmers and our weaponry for any challenges we may face, and Stork… get us away from here, I can't bear the sights of Cyclonia anymore."

With a nod, the team get on their way with their new-found chores whilst Radarr and Aerrow head to Piper's old laboratory; as they reach the door, the Sky Knight hesitates, his hand poised in mid air waiting to open the lock. He hasn't been in here since he lost her, there was always that unexplainable fear that if he ever entered, he'd discover some piece of information that could have saved her life that was now no use to him; he was afraid of disturbing things, Piper's bedroom was much the same… the two rooms contained the last elements of the navigator, every item had lain undisturbed for years, the last person to ever touch them was Piper herself and Aerrow had never been able to change that.

Now however, he has to.

With sudden resolve, he opens the door and enters, what meets his eyes moves him almost to tears; the lab has not changed in five years, papers lie undisturbed, crystals cover the desks and Piper's lab coat rests on the back of her worn chair. He half expects to see her sitting there, bent over her work, safety goggles on and some dangerous appliance in her hand…

... but there is no one there.

Radarr looks up at his friend and tugs at his trouser leg, he calls out in his unknown tongue and then steps back; Aerrow smiles at him, understanding the gesture. "Thanks Radarr… I could do with the time alone."

The creature smiles before exiting the room, the door shutting behind him, leaving the Sky Knight alone with the untouched room filled with memories. Cautiously, Aerrow makes his way over to Piper's old desk, sits down and reaches over to the nearest pile of paper; he has to start from the beginning, it could take him hours but he has to do it, there is no other way. He cannot afford to miss one single detail. Maybe, if he had listened, he wouldn't have to do this now; Piper could have explained everything to him and he would have been able to help her instead of leaving her to rot.

He reads the first paragraph written in Piper's elegant hand and the memories finally take over…

* * *

_There's a cold breeze tonight and it makes Aerrow shiver as he steps out onto the balcony, he should be in bed getting his much-needed rest but the attempt to sleep would be futile; how can he sleep when tomorrow will bring the last battle for the Atmos? How do you even __**begin**__ to consider sleeping when your entire future hangs in the balance?_

_Besides, there's a particular reason for his wanting to be out here, even when it's ridiculously cold and rather late and just not the best thing to be doing right now… and that reason, is Piper. It's nice to see her, outside of her lab, Aerrow hasn't seen her all day, in fact, scrap that; in the past few weeks, Aerrow has barely seen her at all; everything has just been too manic, there's been no time to stop and chat. As leader of the Storm Hawks, he has been busy preparing the fleets and the squadrons, training his team, perfecting his own techniques and running over the countless number of strategies; meanwhile, Piper… well, Aerrow doesn't know exactly what Piper's been doing behind those locked doors of her laboratory, but he trusts her to know that her efforts will help them to win this war…_

"_Couldn't sleep either, huh?"_

_The question has come from the navigator, she hasn't even turned around to acknowledge his entrance but she knows that Aerrow is there; their connection has been growing ever more powerful ever since that first transference of power, when they had discovered perfect attunement. Now Piper doesn't need to look to know her Sky Knight is beside her, because she can feel him there; he is a constant presence that gets her through the days. _

…_and soon, Piper will repay him for everything he has done for her._

_She turns, leans against the banister and smiles at the red-head; Aerrow takes it as encouragement to come closer and he walks to her side. Once together, the pair turn back to look out onto the starry night and Piper links her arm through his, resting her head against his muscular form; the young boy sighs happily and absent-mindedly runs his free hand through her midnight blue hair, this is a moment he doesn't want to forget, it is times like this when everything is right with the Atmos. Forget the war, forget Cyclonis, forget the Dark Ace; right now, it is just the two of them, making up for all the hours and days that they have spent apart in this one perfect moment. _

_He doesn't know how long they stand like that, time waits for them. The teens never say anything to each other, but that's because they don't __**need**__ to; just being in each other's company fulfils their needs and desires, life is truly perfect when the connection between the two of them becomes physical. The Sky Knight's mind is buzzing, maybe he should tell her now – his true feelings – before they go off to fight? But is that really a sensible thing to do? What if he doesn't come back?_

_But Piper breaks the silence first, she pulls away from him and begins to unfasten the necklace from around her delicate throat; Aerrow looks at her intensely, not wanting to take his eyes off her, every movement she makes moves him._

"_Aerrow, I need you to look after something for me…" it takes a while for the Sky Knight to pull his intense gaze from her tangerine eyes and realise that she's holding out the fragile blue crystal on it's fine, silver chain, but even then he simply stares at it resting in her palm, a little taken aback._

"_Why? What's wrong? What do you mean?"_

"_I want you to look after it for me… it's important, you see."_

_Aerrow's navigator is looking at him with a hard and determined expression, she is gesturing for him to take the stone from her but he doesn't touch it. "Piper, I can't take that from you; it's yours, you've had it for years, why are you suddenly…?"_

"_Because it will be safer with you, it's just in case I –" She stops midsentence and bites her lip, she has said too much for her own liking._

"_In case you… what, Piper?"_

"_Look, just take it, will you?" She is becoming agitated, she hates it when people question her; Piper is never more sure of anything than her own abilities, and now especially is a time when she has never been more certain of everything. This is her only possible action available to her._

"_Not until you tell me why you want me to have it. Don't you want it anymore? Why now, of all times?" The Sky Knight questions her persistently, he can tell that she is on the brink of telling him everything and he pushes harder; Piper is not the kind of girl to hide things from him, and she has never denied him anything before...he uses that to his advantage. "Piper, why do you want me to have it? In case what?"_

"…_In case I don't come back, Aerrow! In case I die!" _

_An awkward silence falls upon the pair as they stand there, staring at one another; Aerrow's mouth falls open and after a moment, Piper turns away in shame and despair, hugging the crystal to her chest; "…in case I don't come back…" she whispers, tears beginning to fall over her dark cheeks. The boy doesn't know what to say, he reaches forward to place a hand on her shoulder but Piper turns back to face him rather quickly, tears still forming but her expression desperate. "You __**have**__ to take this necklace, Aerrow; if I don't make it back, I want you to make sure this is safe…"_

_But Aerrow shakes his head, "I can't take that from you…"_

"_Why not?"_

_His emerald eyes meet her amber ones, "because you __**will**__ make it back Piper, you will defeat Cyclonis, you will destroy the stone… and you __**will**__ come back to me." _

_Piper begins to protest but her heart sinks and expression falls as she recognises that resolute spark in her leader's eyes that tells her that there is no convincing him otherwise, Aerrow's mind is made up – he will not take the stone from her. The navigator feels like crying, if only he knew the truth of what she was about to do, if she explained to him… __**then**__ he would take it from her. 'But', she rationalises, 'if I tell him, he won't let me do it… he'd stop me from even trying.' This is how it feels to be stuck between a rock and a hard place, Piper knows now that she cannot win either way – sacrifice herself, or sacrifice the entire Atmos; perhaps she was just pushing her luck trying to save her own life as well as everyone else's? _

_The Sky Knight watches her almost from afar, he can tell that she is locked in some sort of inner-debate and part of him longs to interrupt and to be involved; but he knows that she will not tell him everything, if she wants him to take the stone from her, she __**must**__ tell him the truth. _

"_Look, Piper; we'll get through this, you give me that crystal and it will be like you making sure that you're not coming back. You keep it with you, because then you'll have more of a reason to make it, you'll know that I know you're going to come back… to me. Okay?"_

_All Piper can do, is nod; she is resigned to her secret fate._

_Aerrow moves his hand to her beneath her chin and lifts her head up gently, then he wipes away her last tear and smiles at her, encouragingly. "We had better get some rest, it's a big day tomorrow; we don't want to be fighting Cyclonians half asleep …" then he hesitates, should he tell her?_

_No, not now… maybe later, when all of this is over…_

"_I'll see you tomorrow, Piper; and the day after that and the day after that… I promise. You'll come back, and everything will be fine." And then he raises his own head and softly presses his lips upon her forehead before releasing her slowly and returning inside the Condor._

_The young girl watches him walk away and just as he disappears into the corridor across the bridge, she lets out a stifled sob and clutches the banister for support; the crystal is still hanging from her closed fist and she stares at it as though angered by its presence. But then her body falls limp and she sighs sadly; this is the way it must be, she realises that now. _

"_I'm sorry, Aerrow… but I think this is it. I love you, I love you so much… but I'm not ever coming back." _


	5. I Will Guide You

**Author's Note: thanks to EVERYONE who has reviewed. you're all very wonderful :) Chapter Five - sorry for the wait! the first piece of the puzzle is put into place, and Aerrow discovers that he isn't as alone as he thought he was...**

* * *

I Will Guide You

"_I'm not ever coming back…"_

"Please, Piper… please come back… _please_, I need you… I _love_ you… oh Piper…"

The Sky Knight has fallen to the floor in his troubled sleep; as he wakes from his nightmare he curls into a ball, his trembling fingers grabbing tufts of his hair and pulling it from the roots as he suffers under the strain of the unwanted emotions now washing over him. He sobs like a child, tears flowing over his cheeks; he cries out from the self-inflicted pain and holds himself tighter, trying to lock out everything.

The paper he had been searching through lies strewn about the desk and floor alongside him, the ink on some has been smudged by his crying making the words barely discernible; not that it matters, they had been lost on Aerrow anyway, the complex terms and equations had meant nothing to him, all he had known was that they were important… and that he would never know why. Piper is the only one who can help him, and she's trapped on Cyclonia, abandoned once again by the Sky Knight she trusted.

Aerrow has let her down, and knowing that is destroying him; he buries his head into his chest and cries like a little child.

"_Aerrow…"_

"No, go away – please – I can't take this anymore."

"_Aerrow…"_

"No, I _can't_ – I can't do this."

There is silence for a moment, the young man feels a presence close beside him, sitting next to his trembling figure; a reassuring hand is placed upon his shoulder so gently that it's hard to believe it's even there. The Sky Knight jumps a little at the contact made, something inside of him recognises the touch, the severed connection between himself and his navigator seems to heal… if only for a second.

"_Aerrow…"_

"Piper, is that you?" Aerrow doesn't dare to look; he doesn't want to know that this is all in his head, that he's finally gone as mad as Cyclonis.

There is a soft, ghostly chuckle that lifts his pitiful heart; _"yes it's me… sort of. Will you look at me?"_

Cautiously, the Sky Knight lifts his head and peers out from his thick mane of red hair, what he sees terrifies and astounds him at the same time; terrified, he falls onto his back and stares, wide-eyed in shock at the Piper from his memory, the one who has been with him for five years, the image he created to keep him company.

But this Piper looks a lot more real, she may be pale and ghost-like, but her outline is more defined, her presence is more physical… and Aerrow is certain that he is not dreaming her up…

"_Piper?"_ The man stumbles over his own words, overcome with fear. "What… are you… where did you… who are you? Is it really you?"

The girl looks at him steadily, her tangerine eyes analysing his smooth features as Aerrow does the same, neither believing what is happening; Piper drinks in her leader's appearance as though this is the first time that she has seen him in years, her eyes follow his defined jaw line and his unshaven beard, whilst her fingers gently trace his lips before attempting to brush away an errant tear; the contact of her skin against his is strange, like there's a barrier between to two of them that she cannot completely break through.

"_Don't cry, Aerrow; I hate to see you cry."_

Her voice reminds him of milky stars and a violet night sky, it is another distant memory that he brushes aside; right now he must focus on the present, on this impossible woman sitting before him.

"How are you… here? This just isn't possible, Piper – you're gone… you're not alive anymore – not like this…"

The navigator places a slender finger against her own lips and Aerrow falls silent, transfixed; "_I'm always with you, Aerrow; I am a part of you, we are bound together. I heard my name, I heard you calling me…"_

"I need your help."

"_To recreate the stone, I know…" _Piper looks reflective for a moment; the Sky Knight assumes that she is pondering the possibilities and the outcomes of recreating the stone that destroyed her. Does she think it is a good idea? Does she want to him to risk everything to get her back?

"Yes, can you do it?" Aerrow is suddenly eager, maybe this echo of Piper can repair the stone, maybe she is the key to bringing herself back?

But the Sky Knight's bright expression falls when he sees the navigator shaking her head sadly; "_I am sorry Aerrow, but I can only do the things that you can do; I am a part of you, I share your memories, your thoughts… I know nothing of my own body… I can only offer words, I am not of this world – surely you can see that?" _She pauses and bites her lip, Aerrow can see, can almost _hear_, her thinking; thoughts buzzing through her head, rapidly being replaced by new ones.

And then she looks up and smiles that bright smile that years ago was so familiar to him, the young man almost tears up again – it's been five years since he saw that smile. _"But that doesn't mean that I can do nothing."_

"What will you do?"

"_I will guide you, Aerrow…"_

The pair look at each other for a minute, Piper's hand resting as much as it can do upon Aerrow's; that strange invisible barrier preventing them from connecting completely but allowing them to both take comfort from the gesture. And then the apparition of the navigator suddenly becomes focused, stands up and leans over the desk covered in documents, Aerrow follows her and watches from a slight distance as she scans each paper, one long finger delicately tracing over words and diagrams; the Sky Knight doesn't know what's happening, he can barely believe what he is seeing, but he feels as though he suddenly understands – the equations make more sense, the pictures are all clues to bringing his suffering to an end. He can see everything through Piper's eyes…

…And it is marvellous.

Those carnelian eyes find his face once more, alive with wisdom and understanding.

"_You're an intelligent young man, Aerrow; all of this you could have easily understood… you just needed a little guidance from a part of you that you've kept buried."_

The red head blushes, he feels guilty – this is the Piper that he has hidden away for five years, the image of the ghostly girl that he has seen in corridors, seen in the corner of his eye, spoken to in his dreams… this is the part of Piper that she shared with him through the Binding, through perfect attunement. Everything is clear to him now, and it lifts his heart – perhaps his quest to save his navigator is not as foolhardy as the others would have him believe.

Piper seems to hear his thoughts and frowns a little.

"_It will be dangerous, Aerrow."_

"When is it not?"

The dark-skinned girl laughs in her throat with agreement, but then her happiness dies away and she becomes serious once more. _"All the same, I do not want you risking everything for me – there is a chance that nothing will help, there is a possibility that though my body is alive, I am dead – I may never come back to you, Aerrow. What if I am gone forever?"_

The Sky Knight smiles reassuringly at the allusion and steps forward to stand beside her; "you're here, aren't you? Piper… how could I do anything but search for you? I _know_ you're still alive, I know that somewhere out there, you're waiting for me…and I will do anything – _anything_ – to get you back."

They share another moment, a moment of complete understanding; the three words that Aerrow wants to say are lost to him, because he knows that this Piper already knows what they are. And then… her eyes catch the piece of paper that she has been searching for and the moment is broken. "_This is the one!"_ She points at it excitedly, but does not pick it up – maybe because she can't; Aerrow, his own heart beating wildly in anticipation takes it in his hands and begins to read.

"… Terra Vapos?"

Piper nods, looking over his shoulder; the Sky Knight shivers when he realises that he can't feel her breath. "_Yes, this document is focusing on the origins of the Stone – there is no way to build a Hypno Stone, so I must have realised that the only way to ever get near to recreating its power is to discover its origins. The Hypno Stone is thousands of years old, almost a myth – it existed before the divide between the Atmos and the Far Side… and –"_

" – and so did Terra Vapos." Realisation is dawning upon Aerrow now, his emerald eyes widen in excitement. "So what now, Piper? Do you think King Agar will know what to do? "

No reply.

"Piper?"

The Sky Knight looks up to find the room empty, Piper has gone, but the door to the lab is open and one bemused Finn stands in the threshold.

"Sorry dude, wrong person – I'm the annoying narcissist, not the intelligent Crystal Mage. Who were you talking to, exactly?"

Aerrow's eyes scan the room once more for a trace of the navigator who was there only moments ago; had he been dreaming the whole thing?

"No one, just getting a bit carried away that's all."

Finn, possibly choosing to ignore the questionable lapse in Aerrow's sanity, gestures to the sheet in his leader's hand, "what's that, then? Have you found something?"

The Sky Knight's attention is drawn back to the document still clasped between his fingers and he suddenly remembers; his heart leaps, his pulse quickens – this is it, their first step towards getting their navigator, _his_ Piper back. Aerrow laughs, making the sharp shooter jump out of shock; "this Finn, is our first clue. We best go and tell Stork to set a course for our first destination!"

"What destination!" Aerrow is already half-way down the corridor as the confused blonde hollers the question from the doorway to Piper's laboratory.

"Terra Vapos, 'dude' – home of the Domo, and the key to finding Piper!"

Finn can only watch, stunned into silence, as Aerrow reaches the door to the bridge and disappears through it; he shakes his head and smiles to himself – this is the first time that his leader has risen to a challenge in years and it raises his own spirits just thinking about it. Perhaps it was a sign that soon things would be back to the way they used to be? The sharp shooter hopes that that is the case, but what could have possibly made Aerrow so determined? He peers curiously around the lab, almost certain that something has changed; for some reason, he doesn't feel as though he's the only one in the room.

Slightly on edge, he begins to turn to follow his Sky Knight but as he does so, his blue eyes fall upon a strange reflection being made in the glass apparatus being stored on a shelf beside him… he stops for just a second, trying to convince himself that he saw nothing.

Except, Finn knows what he saw – that familiar flash of orange…

But it is gone before he has even time to blink and the sharp shooter leaves without another moment's hesitation; the door closes behind him, leaving the lab bare and empty as it was before. Outside, the wind whistles past and if any one of the team had been standing there, they would have sworn to hear the chimes of laughter from a girl they used to know…

* * *

Standing out on the balcony, Aerrow watches as Terra Vapos homes into view, it's easier to find it once you've been there before and the Sky Knight can tell from the pilot's expression that Stork feels as though a third visit to the terra is not what he wants to be doing. Aerrow can understand why, the poor merb is the one often saddled with the jesters hat whilst Finn takes all the glory. Smiling a little at the memories that the image of Finn as a Domo conjures up, the red head gazes out into the misty sky; Terra Vapos is rather beautiful really, surrounded in a thick haze of blue cloud that reflects the moonlight, it looks peaceful and serene. But the shadow of reality looms over the Sky Knight and the beauty of Vapos is lost to him, nothing will ever be as beautiful as the amber eyes of the girl he left behind.

From out of the cloud, a small figure appears, blue in colour and gliding gracefully on the air currents; as it approaches, Aerrow recognises it as one of the famed messenger birds of Vapos and watches, entranced, as the silver of its feathers catches the rays of the moon and illuminates the sky around like a star. With a glorious cry, the bird lands on the banister beside the Sky Knight and holds out its leg to the young man revealing a small green crystal attached to it with a leather strap; Aerrow, cautious of the creatures sharp beak, unties the stone and steps back quickly in order to allow the animal to spread its huge wings and take off once more into the feathery clouds. The activity has roused Finn who sprints to his leader's side to take the stone from his hands:

"Ah _sweet_ dude, are my fans awaiting the arrival of their Domo?"

As Aerrow rolls his eyes in despair, Finn activates the crystal; it glows green before releasing a ghostly image of a miniature King Agar, standing proudly and looking up at the pair, he smiles and waves a withered hand. "I thought that we would be receiving a visit from you, young Aerrow – the landing strip has been prepared for your arrival, follow the lights." He disappears, leaving a rather disgruntled Finn staring at the stone in his palm.

"Uh – what happened to _me_?"

The Sky Knight laughs and turns to enter the Condor, giving the sharp shooter a reassuring pat on the back as he does so; Stork eyes him as he enters the bridge and pulls an inquisitive and discontented expression.

"If they make me wear that hat again, one of you is going to suffer for making me do this; preferably Finn." Then his tone lightens a little, "so… where do we park?"

"The landing strip has been cleared ready for us, Agar knew we were coming…"

"Doesn't surprise me." Aerrow is a little taken aback by Stork's offhand remark, the merb catches his expression and shrugs, "Agar may be old – but his minds still practically there – Piper's disappearance will have spread like wildfire, you know what old people are like with _gossip_. And besides, Piper spent all the time she could researching that stone, who is to say she never asked Agar about it herself? I mean… no one knew anything about her in those final days… It's not like any of us ever checked up on her, like we ever asked her what she was doing, what she was planning…"

There is a pause, Stork sighs quietly, ashamed.

"I wish we had done. I miss her…"

The Condor pilot falls silent as the ship approaches the landing strip, a great open space illuminated with huge blazing fires along it to guide them in; an uneasiness has settled between the Sky Knight and the merb, the sharp sting from the truth of Stork's words having knocked the pair of them – it is hard admitting that they failed their navigator, even now. But Aerrow is moved as he realises that Stork, the merb who very rarely shared his feelings, is able to admit that Piper was important to him…

Junko joins them on the bridge, Finn enters too still looking rather disgruntled with the message crystal resting in his hand; Aerrow kneels down when he feels a small tug on his trouser leg and lets Radarr clamber onto his shoulder; the five team members look out as their ship comes to land on the mysterious terra, no one speaks, they only watch, all of them lost in their own thoughts.

The Sky Knight takes a deep breath as the wheels of the Condor come into contact with the ground below them and the sounds of the engines die away; this is it, the first piece to the puzzle. If all goes well, the Storm Hawks will be leaving this terra with more of a chance of being a complete team once again. Aerrow feels a light smile grace his lips, how strange to think that it was their navigator who brought them here in the first place – whether Piper had been an image from his own mind, or whether she had truly been there beside him in the lab, the young man dares to allow himself to hope once again; five years have passed and still she is looking out for them, showing them the way. He closes his eyes and sees her face in the back of his mind and hears those words that lifted his heart:

"_I will guide you, Aerrow…"_

And Aerrow knows that he has nothing to fear, Piper is beside him once again; in fact, she never left.


	6. Following the Breadcrumbs

**Author's note: woah, woah, WOAH - look who suddenly popped up out of nowhere. my SINCERE apologies for this taking up to a month to write; but with my final exams looming, this story took a back seat on the priority list. nevertheless, bit-ing and piece-ing has led to me finally finishing this chapter. though i will point out, to those who offered me support and encouragement, i cannot thank you enough! i hope this chapter keeps you happy!**

**please point out any errors to me and offer any feedback you see fit! thank you, thank you and thank you. please enjoy! ~ 3 **

* * *

Following the Breadcrumbs

"I've been expecting you, Aerrow."

The Sky Knight kneels before the hunched and fragile king humbly, lowering his head in reverence; though rather ancient, King Agar is a man who inspires loyalty from his people and for that Aerrow admires him. Agar has supported and guided the inhabitants of Terra Vapos for many years, an ancient society that should have crumbled centuries ago and yet still remains, practically undiscovered to most of the Atmos; the Storm Hawk wishes that he could have done the same with his team; the King may be old, but he has done a better job of serving his people than Aerrow could ever hope to.

Junko and Radarr also kneel beside their leader but the elderly man waves their sign of servitude away with a wrinkled hand; with an amused sort of look, Agar gestures to the two remaining team members a little further down the landing strip.

"I see your friends are not without their fans."

Much to the pleasure of Finn and to the absolute horror of Stork, the girls of Terra Vapos remember clearly the pair of them saving their lives from the Murk Raiders all those years ago and are quite keen to show their gratitude and affection. Unable to contain himself, Finn is basking in the attention – Stork on the other hand looks as though he'd rather be being eaten alive by mind worms; hell, Stork would willingly prefer wearing the jesters hat if it meant he wasn't being fondled or canoodled.

Aerrow feels his lips stretch into an involuntary smile; for a short second, it feels like it's the good old days again. Agar watches him and then steps backwards, gesturing up the stairs towards his palace; "it would be best to leave them to it, I believe. Come, there is much to talk about."

Curious, Junko, Radarr and Aerrow follow the King patiently, the Wallop prepared to catch him in case the frail old man should lean back too far; but Agar manages well enough and eventually the group and the entourage of servants, soldiers and screaming fans reach the top of the grand stair case and enter the entrance chamber to King Agar's palace. The Sky Knight eyes the carved pillars supporting the roof above them, the shining marble floor and the golden statues; everything shines as though it had been built yesterday.

"You've renovated, your majesty," he comments; Agar tilts his head to catch his eye before smiling, perhaps a little sadly – but Aerrow can't be sure.

"This terra is ancient, young Aerrow, time is rapidly leaving us behind and we cannot afford to crumble; this place may look magnificent now, but it is a sign that soon our existence will no longer be a legend."

Junko scratches his head, indicating confusion; the three remaining Storm Hawks watch and wait as Agar approaches his golden throne and collapses upon it in exhaustion, rubbing his gilded headdress for a moment. "But, is that a bad thing?"

The King acknowledges the Wallops question with an indignant shrug of the shoulders, "perhaps not, Junko. But it does not ease my nerves knowing that soon we must reveal ourselves to the Atmos; my people have never been off this terra, they know nothing of the technology, of the customs, of the _threats_ that lay in wait once we 'go public'. And I'm not the young man I once was, I cannot lead them into a new age when I feel as old as the ground beneath my feet – as I have already said, this terra is ancient…" and then he pauses, turns his gaze back to Aerrow and raises his eyebrows, smiling an all-knowing smile… "but then I believe that _that_ is why you are here…"

Radarr chirps apparently voicing Aerrow and Junko's own nervousness, the trio exchange glances and shift on their feet uncomfortably; but curiosity gets the better of the Sky Knight. "How did you know we were coming? How do you know anything about all of this?"

Agar smiles sadly again and rests his head in his hand against the arm of this throne; "… she was the most intelligent child I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Her loss was a great tragedy for the entire Atmos…" The Storm Hawks hold their breath as they watch the old man seemingly lose himself in memories they know nothing about, but then the King's wise eyes fall on them again and he appears to pull himself back into the moment, answering Aerrow's question with one simple word: "Piper."

"Please tell me more."

Aerrow's voice is barely a whisper but the sadness in his own eyes speaks volumes and the king readily obliges.

"Just because the rest of the Atmos is blind to our existence, does not mean that we do not understand what is happening out there – news spreads quickly, especially when it concerns you and your team – and we have ways of discovering things. But it was through your navigator that we learnt the intentions of Master Cyclonis and of the existence of the Hypno Stone, she contacted me barely hours after you had returned from the Far Side with a message crystal explaining the situation and asking me for help…"

"Did you help her?"

"Naturally, I was one of very few existing people who knew the full capabilities of that stone, as Piper was all too aware. In those few days before the battle began, she visited me twice…"

"Twice?"

"Yes, the first time the visit was expected; she arranged to see me and discuss the properties of the stone, its history, how to resist it and so on and so forth. And I told her everything I knew…"

* * *

_Agar stands in his marble throne room, surrounded by his courtiers all looking as worried as himself; a dark skinned girl approaches cautiously through the crowd, aware of dozens of pairs of eyes staring down upon her but unfazed by the attention; this girl has more important things to concern herself about. Once she reaches the steps leading to the king's throne she stops and lowers herself to the ground in a well-practiced bow; Agar nods in acknowledgment from atop his podium and turns a little as though to address the entire room._

"_Is it as bad as you suggested, young Piper?"_

_The navigator stands and looks up at the king, one hand placed on her hip and the other running through her tousled blue hair as she pulls a rather disconcerted expression; "I wish I had another answer, your Majesty… but yes, I am afraid my message crystal relaying past events remains true ."_

"_And the stone… is it still in Cyclonis' possession?"_

"_I am afraid so; Aerrow and I presume that she will adapt and utilise her Storm Engine once again to harness and magnify its power… it will take a few days for her to calibrate the machine, but we're already seeing the stones influences on certain terras – before long it will be ready, and as of yet we're hardly prepared to battle her…"_

"_And so that is why you are here."_

_Piper looks up towards the elderly king, watching him patiently; Agar remains staring out towards the crowd, but as he feels her carnelian eyes fall upon him, he turns to her and smiles a little. "I assume that you would like to know everything in as little time as possible?"_

_The young woman blushes, "that's the way I prefer to learn."_

_A murmur runs through the courtiers, eyes remain fixed upon their leader, no one breathes._

"_Where would you like me to begin, Piper?"_

_There is no hesitation when answering this question; "from the start, King Agar; if you please."_

_Agar takes a breath and begins his story: "there was a time when the Atmos was not divided, it was a time when those who inhabited our world – the Ancients – were beginning to harness the power of its natural resources – the crystals we continue to use today. The Ancients were a developed and amazing race, as you are no doubt aware; after all, you visited one of their cities all those years ago… the home of the oracle…"_

_The navigator gasps and places a slender finger to her lips, eyes wide in surprise; "the forbidden city? It makes sense now… there were places like that scattered throughout the Far Side… It was in one of those cities that Cyclonis found the Hypno Stone."_

"_Indeed."_

"_But… why then is the Atmos divided now? What happened?"_

"_As time passed, the Ancients grew more and more separated in their approach to the crystals and their own survival; there were those that wished to remain more connected to the world around them, to use the raw power of crystals rather than adapt the power to create new forms of energy… and there were those who wished to adapt, who wished to modernise themselves and use crystals to create machines, transport, weaponry…" Agar pauses for a second and looks at Piper; "I'm certain that you are aware of which side is which?"_

_She nods, "simple I suppose… the Far Side was for those Ancients who decided to harness natures power rather than adapt it. And this is the side of the Atmos that was willing to change."_

"_Exactly… it was at that time of internal crisis when both the Oracle Stone and the Hypno Stone were discovered; they were twin crystals, you see? Two of the most powerful crystals ever discovered and the only two in existence; one that allowed you to see the future, and the other that allowed you to control the minds of anyone you so chose. They were linked because with control of the people, you could bring about the future you so desired – changing destiny and fate and controlling the entire Atmos to create a world that you saw fit. It was this discovery that led to the widening of the rift between the Ancients; those who cursed the changing of nature realised that such power would destroy the connection the race shared with the Atmos around them; there were even those who believed in modernising their race who also saw this great power as a terrible threat… and so, after long debates and many arguments and bargaining, it was agreed that the Atmos was to be divided: those who wished to stay away from change and to remain attached to their world moved to the Far Side and with the power of all the crystals in the Ancients' possession, the two worlds were sealed up. That is how the Atmos as it is today came to be."_

"_And the stones?"_

_Another pause, Agar smiles; "I think you already know what role they were to play…"_

_The dark skinned girl blushes again, "well, I assume that they were separated in order to make sure that no one person could have the combined power of the two. And that… if the Oracle Stone was the key to the Far Side, then the Hypno Stone was the key to this side of the Atmos. That is how Cyclonis found her way back through, isn't it?"_

"_Precisely that, Piper. The crystals became keys to the worlds if ever it was considered that the time was right to unite the Ancients once again. Of course, that time never came; on this side of the world, the Ancients evolved, changed, separated further and lived on different Terras – Vapos being the first. Ironically, there were those who had wished to adapt and heighten their power but who were not willing to adapt themselves – it was they who remained hidden in the Forbidden City, who were determined to remain pure and not branch out onto new Terras and evolve into new species; instead they created the Oracle, a guardian of the key, and indulged themselves in imagining different futures where they would remain a powerful race. The ruins of the city are merely proof that such a thing never happened, the pure Ancients of this world died out and left the Key to be discovered hundreds of thousands of years later… by you." _

"_But how do you know this?"_

"_As I said, Terra Vapos was the first Terra to be inhabited by the Ancients; and yes, over time, they evolved and lost a great deal of their power, but it remained a Terra steeped in legend and mystery. The story of the Stones and the Far Side became part of our legacy, that is how I know of the Hypno Stone – because it was my ancestors who discovered it."_

"_But do you know how to stop it? What if there is no way to stop this from happening!"_

_Piper looks desperate, almost scared and so like a child that the King, taking pity on her, walks down the steps leading to his throne and takes hold her hands warmly. "Remember I mentioned those Ancients who, although willing to accept change, knew that the ability to change the future was wrong?"_

_The navigator nods feebly and answers with a murmur. _

"_They were my ancestors, the first group of Ancients willing to evolve; before those who left for the Far Side did so, it was agreed that a plan must be made in case the two stones ever became too powerful. The Ancients were aware that the Hypno Stone held the most potential, that is why it was that Stone that was taken to the other side; one night, before the Ancients left for their new world, the two stones were combined in secret, the Oracle Stone used to answer the question you wish to know now – 'how do we stop the Hypno Stone?' Typically their answer was more of a prophecy than a direct answer, and it meant little to them; but to me, it is as clear as day."_

"_What was it? What was the prophecy?"_

"_There will come a time when the stones are united once more, by old friends who await different futures; she who wields the key with truth, bears the greatest power, she who is willing to sacrifice it all, shall achieve the most."_

_Silence falls upon the room, even the excited murmur of the crowd dies away; Agar releases Piper's hands and watches her as she thinks, amber eyes darting this way and that as she sums up the knowledge he has placed upon her shoulders. Taking the moment to take her in completely, the King sees for the first time, the effect responsibility has had on the child – she isn't young anymore, this is no naïve girl standing before him, this is a woman, forced to mature before her time. A sadness fills his heart, but before he can comfort the navigator, she awakens from her trance and stands resolute._

"_The key…"_

_Agar nods, "… the key."_

_A hopeful smile flashes across Piper's tired face, bringing back her youthful fervour once again; in a sudden movement, she takes Agar's hand eagerly and clasps his fingers. "Oh, your Majesty, thank you!" Still holding his hands, she bows haphazardly still beaming, then releases him, turns and begins to run out of the throne room._

"_Wait!" Agar cries, lifting his hand as though to snatch her back even though she is already the other end of the chamber; "what are you going to do?"_

"_I don't know," she replies, not even looking back and yet still running; "but I have the key, your majesty! I can stop this, I can stop her – and I will, regardless of what it takes!"_

_

* * *

_

"But, I don't understand… how is any of that relevant! How will it help to bring Piper back?"

Aerrow frowns at Agar who returns the gesture with the same hardened expression and an exasperated sigh; "you wanted me to tell you about Piper and I am doing so! And at any rate, it is _entirely_ relevant; you should now be aware that though the specifics of that final battle between the young navigator and Master Cyclonis will never be fully understood, it is easy to say that Piper was able to repel and fight off the powers of the Hypno Stone with its sister crystal… the key…"

Finally, the Sky Knight understands; "the Oracle Stone! That's how she did it?"

"Precisely! Of course, it reveals just how powerful and capable she must have been – the Oracle Stone was a crystal of great power, you would have to be a true Crystal Mage to wield and control it; which Piper clearly did."

Junko scratches his chin for a second before looking down at the King, another question eagerly awaiting an answer: "but that doesn't explain why she's in the condition she is now; if she were truly powerful, couldn't she have protected herself from the explosion?"

Aerrow nods, albeit a little sadly; "your majesty, no offence but… the key did nothing to save Piper, we're no closer to bringing back her memory or restoring the Hypno Stone!"

Again Agar frowns, "patience is a virtue long forgotten, it would seem. If you recall, I mentioned that she visited me _twice_ before the battle took place; although, as I also mentioned, only the first visit was expected. My second encounter with Piper was much more of a surprise… and less of a pleasure… for various reasons; but it is an encounter I must share with you, young Aerrow."

The red head shakes his head with confusion and gestures wildly, "but I don't understand, when did she come to see you? When was this? Why did she not tell me about any of this?"

"Aerrow…" Agar raises his hand and places it on the young man's shoulder, "it may be unpleasant to know this, but… Piper's second visit was made the night before the final offensive."

"WHAT?"

* * *

_The heliscooter collides with the marble floor of Agar's balcony with an impressive crash, but only he seems to hear it; feeble heart pounding uncomfortably fast in his chest, the King wraps his robe around himself and grabs a spear from its display on his wall. Slipping through the doorway onto the balcony, cursing himself for this foolish act of bravery, he wields the gilded weapon towards a hooded figure shakily clambering to its feet. But as the intruder sees him, it shrieks and lifts its hands in surrender; Agar scowls and thrusts the spear menacingly in order to convey his threat… until a familiar voice speaks out to him._

"_You Majesty, please! It's me! Piper!" In a swift movement, the hood is pulled down to reveal a dangerously tired-looking navigator staring wide-eyed at the semi-dressed, heavily-armed King who, with relief, lets the spear drop to the floor in a clatter._

"_Piper… what on __**earth**__ do you think you're doing at this time of night? Goodness, my heart won't take much more of this abuse!" he clutches at his chest for a second before suddenly realising that something is not quite right… "What's wrong!"_

_The navigator, stumbles forward and Agar finally sees the tear stains running down her cheeks and her red-raw eyes; her hair is ragged and her skin sunken with exhaustion. With one clear look, the King's heart breaks for the girl before him._

"_Come here child…" he warmly wraps an arm around her back and takes hold of one hand before guiding her into his chamber and sitting her upon his bed; Piper protests at the attention but the elderly man ignores her, instead, he drapes a blanket over her shoulders, pulls a chair up to sit in front of her and places his hands around her upper arms to steady the shivering woman. "Now Piper… talk to me."_

_The navigator stutters and wipes an errant tear from beneath her fiery eyes that remain fixed on the ground; her voice is barely a whisper but the King catches her words. "I couldn't do it…"_

"_What, Piper? Do what?"_

"_The prophecy… the prophecy you told me; I… I tried to cheat it… I tried so hard… but then… I just couldn't." Locked in some kind of internal battle, her fingers grasp the crystal hanging from her neck and caress its clean cut edges whilst she continues to shake and cry._

"_You're not making sense, Piper – you need to tell me what is wrong – you must!"_

_Agar's stern tone finally cuts through the veil separating the navigator from reality and she lifts her gaze to meet his own; "the prophecy… I found a way to cheat it, a way to protect myself from the stone, to __**survive**__! But then… Aerrow… I – I tried to tell him – and he…" She closes her eyes in saddened despair; "he wouldn't listen… and then I realised; it was a sign, a sign that I mustn't tell him, that I mustn't tell anyone."_

"_I still don't understand."_

"_Of course you don't!" Suddenly Piper jumps to her feet and stumbles away from the King who remains seated, watching, concerned; "I've spent days preparing, getting ready to take down Cyclonis and I __**know**__ I can do it; but I've been trying to cheat the prophecy, I found a way to save myself, because I wasn't willing to sacrifice myself… there were things I wanted to do, places I wanted to see!" She pauses and then adds sadly, "… people I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But then I realised that something was wrong, the Oracle Stone – I've looked at it so many times in the last twenty-four hours, asked it so many questions… and it's always provided me with one of two answers: the end of the Atmos… or the end of me. I cannot protect myself from that fact any longer…"_

_Agar finally catches up to the situation, "but you mean you've… you've worked out a way to save yourself?"_

_Piper nods._

"_What is it!"_

"_Haven't you been listening! I can't say! To tell you would be to jeopardise the entire prophecy!"_

"_Then __**why have you come here!**__"_

_The king himself is now standing, slightly angered by Piper's inconsiderate tone but mostly desperate to know how to save her from the fate she has seemingly decided for herself; the navigator trembles at his raised voice and drops her defensive stance, becoming scared once again, eyes welling with tears. "Because… you know more than anyone else… and one day, one day Aerrow will realise how much of a part you played in helping me to discover a way to defeat Cyclonis; one day he will come to you and ask you about everything that passed between us and I want you to tell him… I want you to tell him that he mustn't blame himself for not listening to me earlier… I want you to tell him that destiny made it that way, that if he had taken my necklace from me, then I would not have won the battle that I am going to win today…__in a matter of hours. I want you to tell him… that I love him, that I have always loved him… and I will, always; no matter what happens to me, that will never change…."_

* * *

Aerrow sinks to his knees, tears welling up his own emerald eyes as he shakes his head in disbelief; "I knew it, I just _knew it_ – I knew I should have listened to her!"

Junko sniffs loudly in the background and wipes his own tears away; "she knew what was going to happen… and she went along with it anyway; poor Piper, brave Piper."

"This is my fault, _my fault_ – I should have listened to her, she would have told me how to save her! I let her down!"

Agar frowns again, bends down and roughly shakes the Sky Knight on the floor by his shoulder; for an elderly man, the King has retained his physical strength and it knocks Aerrow silent. "Young man, are you a Sky Knight? Or a little boy? Yes you should have listened! But not to what she said to you, what she said to _me!_ That was what she intended for you to hear! _Don't you see_? Yes, I know that Piper did not tell you the secret she hid so well, the secret of how to save her… but she revealed enough; enough to tell you that somehow, _somehow_, she survived. You just need to work out _how_…"

Aerrow lifts screws his eyes shut and slams his fist against the marble floor; "but it's useless! I'll never understand how she managed it!"

"Listen to me; Aerrow, listen to me!" Agar pauses, takes a deep breath; "do you still have the key?"

The red head nods.

"Both of them?"

"Yes," he mumbles, "they were the only things I could find that resembled anything, they were the only things I was looking for… but they're useless! The Oracle stone does nothing new and the Hypno Stone was shattered beyond repair!"

"That doesn't matter! Now listen to me and listen well, I have told you everything I know and everything I know can help you a **great deal**; the Oracle Stone is the key to all of this, Aerrow – the stones were connected, and if there's one being that knows more than I do, it's the original guardian of the key."

Aerrow gasps, _"…the_ _Oracle_."

"The very same; if you can call her back… if you ask the **right question**… there's still a chance, Aerrow of the Storm Hawks; without realising it, Piper left a trail of breadcrumbs for you to follow. She's still out there, Aerrow… it's up to _you_ to find her!"


	7. Do We Win?

**Author's note: CHAPTER SEVEN, nearly there now. sorry for the wait, but exams are finished so you may not have to wait so long for the next update. a HUGE thank you to all my reviewers, i'll reply personally next time, i don't think i'm showing my gratitude enough for all your kind and supportive words. i'm glad you're enjoying this :) please, enjoy, x**

* * *

Do We Win?

The Forbidden City is a place that Aerrow swore he'd never come back to, for the simple reason that whenever he explores the dank and eerie ruins, riddled with traps and dead-ends, naturally something bad happens; his experiences of the place were not ones he usually enjoyed reliving and the creature who once lived at the centre of the city – the Oracle – had caused Aerrow enough trouble to last for one lifetime … several, in fact. Now the Sky Knight couldn't help but feel resentful of the fact that a prophecy originating from the mystical being's stone had encouraged Piper to essentially sacrifice herself; although, when he realises that that was the cause of his resentment, the sentiment strengthens to one of controlled rage.

Silent, angry tears begin to flow over his cheeks but he brushes them away with the back of his hand; he's twenty-two for goodness sake! – He shouldn't be crying, he should be out there saving Piper, something he is currently making no progress with. Thankfully for the Sky Knight, he is alone; after leaving Terra Vapos, he requested that his team remain behind on the Condor. It may seem a little callous, but there is that distinct feeling inside of him that they are only slowing him down and with every passing minute, the mission the Dark Ace has assigned him becomes ever more personal; it was _he_ who failed to recognise Piper's intentions on that night before the battle, and it was _his_ actions that led to her believing that her subsequent fate was intended by the gods – Aerrow wasn't usually one to believe in fate or destiny, and yet had unintentionally convinced Piper that hers was already sealed.

Just thinking about that made Aerrow even angrier, he was supposed to be a leader, a shoulder to lean on – he wasn't supposed to encourage his team members to sacrifice themselves!

Pushing his thoughts and feelings to one side, the Storm Hawk decides it best to concentrate on where he's going; he's been here enough times to know where the centre of the city lies, but it wouldn't hurt to be careful. The stone pillars that have survived the battles fought here groan dangerously under the strain as Aerrow walks through the chambers to reach the treasury, pretty soon there won't be a city to visit when the whole place caves in; the Sky Knight just hopes that that doesn't happen with him still trapped inside, as he approaches his destination he cautiously avoids a trap he experienced last time he visited here. Though wary, his lips stretch into that familiar involuntary smile as he relives Piper's words…

"_Don't worry; the traps are all in ruins too."_

It had been one of those rare occasions where she'd been wrong, and Aerrow did not want a repeat of the ordeal of hanging from the ceiling; deciding it best to continue on foot into the treasury, he pulls his bike to a halt and clambers off, using one of his blades to light the way. The ruins are damp and make the floor slippery and soon the Sky Knight is forced to put away his weapon in order to begin climbing over the debris and rubble that blocks his path; the contents of a pack he is carrying over his shoulder clatter as his movements become less agile, the noise attracts his attention and his awareness of it seems to make the bag physically heavier – he frowns, aware that it is only a psychological reaction… but it is one that cannot be helped. The contents of the pack make him uncomfortable, they seem to play on his mind and steal his attention, making him think of only bad things; this is why he locked them away in the first place, it wasn't that they just reminded him of _her_, they only reminded him of the _bad things_.

Unlike the Piper that Aerrow sees from day to day, the Piper from his memories who is confident and loyal and happy and caring; the Piper that he sees when reminded of the artefacts with him now is the one formed from the memories of her last days, the scared Piper, the destroyed Piper… but her image is mixed with visions from his nightmares: a darker Piper, one tainted by obsession and power… a Piper too like Master Cyclonis.

After a moments deliberation, Aerrow takes to focusing on his surroundings once again; the treasury is in ruins but traces of the oracle's powers remains, the chamber walls luminous with pure crystal energy. Golden coins and sparkling jewels lay scattered about the floor, some smashed into tiny fragments as the roof and pillars caved in; finally, after manoeuvring over and around the obstacles, the Sky Knight finds himself nearing the centre of the room, a part of the chamber that has survived most of the damage, the altar steps still intact and the base of the oracle statue still recognisable from the time the Storm Hawk set the creature free. He stops as he reaches the top of the steps and stands there, patiently, not quite sure what to do and too afraid of being disappointed.

But his bag is growing heavier again, and though – at first – he thinks it his guilty conscience simply playing tricks with him again, he comes to realise that that is not the case; heart pounding against his ribs, he lowers the sack to the ground, pulls open the top and lowers his hand into it. His fingers explore the contents, cautiously avoiding something sharp and eventually discovering the object of his desire - something with a smooth, clean-cut edge that is warmer than it should be. The Sky Knight gulps, hesitates, before taking the object in his hand firmly and bringing it out so he can see it, emerald eyes widening when they fall upon the Oracle Stone resting in his palm, glowing a vibrant violet; his heart is now thundering inside of him, his fingers steadily turn white as they grip the crystal tighter as his emotions get the better of him all over again.

This is it, this is all that he has left of the girl he loved, this is the last thing Piper held, the stone that gave her a fighting chance, that protected her from Cyclonis… that encouraged her to become the woman she did; this stone was her destiny, it was fate that led to Aerrow offering it to her as a gift, the key that would take them to the Far Side, that would slowly ebb its way into all corners of her life and allow her to become the greatest Crystal Mage in history. He remains unblinking, gazing into the glowing crystal…

But now, the stone that not only came to represent Piper, and the love he held for her represents something a lot more sinister: the loss of Piper, and Aerrow's inability to save her.

Time passes, but then Aerrow begins to feel a different sensation within him and he stands up slowly, eyes moving from the stone to the altar, before starting to reach out his hand towards the ruins of the Oracle statue. He doesn't know what he's doing, but something of unknown origin inside of him does, something that is guiding him, urging him on… _is it the stone?_

He resists the temptation to stretch out his hand further – he grows suspicious that if it is the crystal controlling his movements, that it is all a trick, that the Oracle is taking the stone from him, the last essence of Piper. If the prophecy meant that she must sacrifice everything, does that mean everything that was a part of her? Is that why he never found her necklace? Firmly, Aerrow pulls his hand back, fingers clutching, protecting, the crystal he's hidden for so long…

No, no – he can't, he won't – he can't let it go. He can't lose her again. Not again.

_Aerrow…_

It's his, _she_ is his – you can't take this from him; the stone is his, it's _Piper_, don't take her away from him, _please…_

_Aerrow. _

Tears are streaming down his cheeks, but the desperation has passed, a calming, soothing sensation is sweeping over him; the pull of the stone to the altar has lessened and finally, the Storm Hawk can relax his arm which he pulls towards him and strokes where his muscles now ache.

_Aerrow._

Aerrow's eyes scan the area, there is a draft that wasn't there before and this makes him shiver; the feeling that he is not alone has returned, someone is with him who wasn't there before. It takes him a while to work out who it is, but once he realises, all the pain goes away.

Piper.

_About time…_

But where is she? There is no apparition this time, only that feeling of belonging, that sense of completeness she used to bring to his life; the crystal in his hand glows warmly, he stops and listens to it within him, finally understands what he has to do, finally accepts that sacrifices must be made. Sacrifices must always be made, Piper knew that, she was willing to give her life; the least Aerrow can do is sacrifice the stone.

_I couldn't have put it better myself._

A smirk appears on the Sky Knight's face, wherever Piper is, whether she is part of the Atmos around him or just a figment of his imagination, he feels less afraid; this time, he stretches out his hand and holds out his arm towards the alter, the crystal glows brighter, the altar trembles with the reconnecting of the bond between Oracle and stone and suddenly the entire cavern is illuminated in luminescent colours, purples and blues and a shocking pure white all emerging from the steps before Aerrow who shields his delicate eyes from the blinding light.

His hand releases the stone, but instead of falling to the floor, it hovers in front of him, it's own light growing with size forming the vibrant silhouette of someone he recognises; at first his heart is in his throat, pounding with untold excitement as he mistakes the creature for Piper… but it calms, rather disappointed when the form of the Oracle becomes clearer. He steps back a little, face turned to stone as he waits for the being to settle and for the light to die away. Soon it does so, and the Sky Knight finds himself face to face with the ancient apparition, who is apparently less than impressed.

Aerrow doesn't care. He isn't all that happy either.

"You know," begins the Oracle, her tone sour and expression cold, "some might consider calling a spirit back a second time _rude_. Especially…" she lifts her hand, the crystal used to conjure her up levitating between her slender fingers, "… when the item used is something they offered as a _gift_."

"Don't lie." The Oracle is stunned by Aerrow's equally bitter tone, even he is rather taken aback, but he hides his inner surprise; "… the stone was the key, to so many things. You have played us all as pawns on a chessboard, this crystal was not a gift, you knew what would happen… in the end."

"Are you implying, little Sky Knight, that my intentions were not for good?"

"I am not saying that, Oracle; I am merely implying that you have been selfish. You knew the outcome of everything, you knew the parts we would play and you chose to keep certain things secret from us – there was never any direct answer, never any specific detail – only prophecies and visions and clues. Were you afraid that if you told us the truth, that we would have to sacrifice so much, we would not have fought? Did you think so little of us?"

During his speech, angry tears have formed in the Sky Knight's eyes but he brushes them away furiously; the Oracle, at first so angry and defensive, has cowed and looked away ashamedly. Her clear expression, usually so hard to read, is one of unadulterated guilt.

Silence falls between the pair, an uncomfortable silence, but Aerrow refuses to break it; this time, the Oracle will talk, she owes him that much at least. Finally, her spirit breaks; her thousand-year-strong self-admiration finally shatters with the truth.

"You are right, Aerrow, I have been unfair to you. You must… forgive me; I am sorry."

"Apologies aren't much good now." The Sky Knight remains unmoved; the apology has come eight years too late.

The apparition sees this and sighs sadly, finally prepared to reveal everything; she gestures to the crystal floating above her palm and turns to the young man with the fiery eyes. "How did you find this? Many supposed it lost once it was used to open the gate by Cyclonis."

"Piper." Aerrow answers, it seems to be an increasingly common explanation; "Piper found it, she used her gift to locate it; she said she could hear it, calling for her across the Far Side. She didn't stop until she'd discovered it."

"Yes, Piper… that girl was so gifted, brimming with power that even I will never fully comprehend. Do you know the history of this stone?" She nods before Aerrow can reply. "Of course you do, you wouldn't be here if you didn't. It was destined to find itself in Piper's hands, the Atmos intended so many things for her, and for you of course…" The Oracle pauses for a moment, then smiles with an air of mystery; "… tell me Aerrow, do you know that it was not you I expected to see that first time we met? For all my knowledge of the future, I couldn't see that Piper would prepare to fulfil her prophecy all those years in advance."

The Sky Knight does a double take, staring at the amused spirit; "… you mean, you were meant to meet Piper!"

"Yes, but an unexpected event occurred..."

The pair exchange glances, Aerrow turns away a little and recalls the moment that Piper had told him to go on ahead and leave her to deal with Domiwick, regardless of how much meeting the Oracle had meant to her; sacrifice appeared to be something Piper had been forced to live with. "…and I visited you instead."

"Indeed," the Oracle reflects at this point, her shimmering, ghostlike edge glowing in the dimming light; "your navigator, destined to sacrifice everything, the only being in the Atmos with the power to do so. It was never Piper's power that allowed her to defeat Cyclonis… it was her selflessness – that was the reason why she and Cyclonis could never be friends, they were two sides of the same coin, forever destined to oppose one another until the final battle when the one who sacrificed it all would be victorious. Sacrifice has always been the key."

Finally, the young man understands; "… that was Piper's prophecy, wasn't it? That is what you were supposed to tell her when you met her."

The Oracle does not say anything; instead she nods briefly and looks away; perhaps not daring to catch the emerald eye of the Sky Knight.

"_Why didn't you __**tell me**__? Why didn't you say that you wanted Piper instead of me!"_

Aerrow's voice break with the bubbling rage but though his powerful, muscular form is intimidating, the Oracle finally finds the courage to face him with a cool and hard expression; "I did not tell her, Aerrow, for one simple reason: it was not to be. Destiny worked against me, something beyond my sight worked to ensure that I would meet you rather than Piper. The Atmos has its own way of doing things, Aerrow; I will admit that I was not too concerned about the change in plans, instead of a brave, young Crystal Mage, I met _you_; a brave, young Sky Knight whose compassion and kind heart not only gave me my freedom, but also convinced me that the key would eventually find its way into Piper's hands. Your love for her was obvious from the start; I knew you would do anything for her."

"And I still will do anything for her, if you will help me."

Silence falls, the Knight looks up into the ghostly face of the spirit timidly, like a little child desperate for a parent's protection.

"… will you help me?"

The Oracle looks down upon him kindly; "there is only one person who can help Piper now, and I am not one of them."

Aerrow cries out in frustration; "then **what do I do!**"

"Listen to me… Aerrow, you and Piper were destined to be together: the binding was never a coincidence. You are connected in ways that you cannot understand, you remain with Piper and Piper remains with you – that is why you hear her, why you see her… and why you searched the entire of Terra Cyclonia for the fragments of the crystal now sitting in your bag…"

The spirit stops and looks expectantly at the Sky Knight who looks rather taken aback, the bag still hanging off his shoulder slips down to his hand and he pulls it open tenderly, still looking at the Oracle. "How did you know?"

"I may not see all events of the future, but things right in front of me I usually don't miss. Now, will you show me the shards?"

Aerrow nods, and slips to his knees, trembling hands delving into his sack cautiously, aware of the sharp pieces sitting at the bottom; he cups his hands around the diamond-edge contents and removes them, taking care to not drop a single one. What appears is a treasure trove of blood red crystal pieces, shimmering strangely as though still alive with the final drops of their ever draining power; the closer Aerrow holds them to the Oracle stone, the brighter they glow and the more they burn his skin. He bears the pain.

The Oracle watches intently, enraptured by the connection the stones share; "after all this time, Piper broke the stone without destroying it; amazing! She was more talented than I could ever have believed! And how much time it must have taken you to find every single piece… incredible!"

Aerrow isn't really concerned with the spirit's misjudgements, he's been living with the effects of them for over five years; all he wants to know is how to bring her back. The Oracle sees his lack of interest in her own amazement, coughs uncomfortably and continues her story.

"As you can see, the crystals have retained their special connection, therefore it is more than likely that one can be used to repair the other; in this case that lies with the Oracle Stone. Repair the Hypno Stone and you will be able to repair Piper's mind… after all, that is the real reason you are here… you knew you had to repair the Stone, but recently learnt information clouded your judgement."

The Sky Knight starts, falters. "Wh-what?"

The Oracle chuckles; "I appear to not be the only one who has kept certain things hidden; yes, you are here to help Piper, but you need to repair the Hypno Stone in order to retrieve her from the Dark Ace. Am I correct in this assumption? That you will risk the safety of the Atmos in order to get Piper back? The safety that Piper sacrificed her life for!"

The lack of a reply from Aerrow confirms her question; his cheeks turn red with shame, but as the silence lengthens, his fingers clutch at the fragments, their sharp edges breaking the skin and drawing small droplets of blood. "I have to try," tears build, "_I love her." _

He looks up at the Oracle pathetically, desperately and she is moved; her soft voice echoes throughout the cavern; "the only person who can utilise the powers of the Oracle stone… is Piper." She holds up her hand to silence the Sky Knight who prepares to question her words, "please, let me finish. The bond between you and your navigator, Aerrow, is beyond any power that has ever existed; the real Piper may be gone, but as I have said, part of her rests with you – you do not need the actual Piper, just a reflection, one upon which you can project the piece of her memory that remains with you."

"… but where do I find something capable of copying Piper? Is there a crystal that can do thatl?"

"I am sure there are some crystals throughout the Atmos that can manage such a feat, but time is running out, the Dark Ace grows impatient; tell me, young one… is your heart's desire Piper?"

"O-of course."

"Then there is only one creature you must visit… and you know where she lives…"

Finally, Aerrow realises what the Oracle is telling him. "Y-you mean… the _Sky Siren_?" He is excited all over again, the pieces are beginning to all fit into place; "… will she be able to…?

"As long as your head overpowers your heart then yes, you must trick the Siren into creating a Piper so real that the image becomes more like the actual navigator than you could ever imagine; if you fall for the Siren's powers however, if you let her image of Piper overwhelm you, if you do not keep your mission clear in your head then you will be lost forever. The darker Piper from your nightmares cannot taint the true Piper you wield in your soul. She is the key to repairing the stone, but you are the key to repairing Piper. Do not fail, brave Sky Knight."

Aerrow nods, "of course, of course! I shan't!"

He places the fragments back into his bag and retrieves the Oracle Stone from the spirit who gracefully floats back to her place on the altar, watching the young man beginning to turn and leave whilst she starts to fade away; but Aerrow stops and turns back to face her, she looks at him expectantly. He blushes, awkwardly. "Just... one more question…"

"… all this time and you still want to know the answer?"

He nods. She smiles.

"One day, Aerrow of the Storm Hawks; one day, _you will win_."

And with that, she disappears and the Sky Knight races away into the darkness towards his ride; finally, the Oracle is left to enjoy her eternal rest, the Forbidden City visited for the last time, the place having ultimately fulfilled its purpose and its guardian having cleared her conscience...


	8. What You Desire Most

**Author's note: chapter eight is finally here and i'm sorry it's taking me so long: i've been suffering from acute writer's block. celebrations are in order, there's only two more chapters to go! huge thanks to everyone who has supported this story thus far and i promise that the final chapters will be you as soon as possible! all my love, katie charlotte :D**

* * *

What You Desire Most

The Great Expanse is a bleak and unwelcoming place that could weaken the strongest of souls and destroy the bravest of hearts; the thick, grey plumes of cloud choke the sky, blocking out all forms of light and hiding from view the perilous spires of the jagged mountain range that rests below all those unfortunate to find themselves trapped in the never-ending skies. This is the one place you never want to find yourself, for the simple reason that you _cannot_ find yourself; you are lost, in a maze of your own nightmares and desires… all of which lead you to your inevitable end.

Funny then, that Aerrow has entered the place intentionally, that instead of losing himself, he intends to discover a missing piece of his life, his very existence.

It didn't take all that long to be caught, he knew roughly where to go having already fallen prey to the Sky Siren's games; besides, the greater the desire, the greater chance you have of attracting her and no one's desire could have been greater than Aerrow's. It just wasn't possible. It's strange, how time can change a man; all those years ago, the Sky Knight's greatest thirst was for victory, the desire to end the man who ruined his life, took away his family: the Dark Ace. What would he have done, if it had been Piper he'd seen standing before him?

Aerrow laughs to himself as he drifts through the wall of fog and clouds, how clueless he must have been to not even notice how much she meant to him; but then the laughter ends, despite finally realising that he loved her, it took losing her to present her real importance. With this thought, the Great Expanse becomes that little bit lonelier and the Sky Knight's heart sinks; he changes his ride to auto-pilot and settles back in his seat, wrapping his arms around himself as he prepares for his wait.

Aerrow is good at that: waiting. He's been doing it for seven years.

* * *

Far outside the Expanse, the _Condor _and her remaining crew sit and wait, the corridors of the vast ship are empty, silent; the beds are barely slept in, the fridge still packed with food, the Sky Rides left untouched. Their Sky Knight has been travelling for three days, from Vapos to the Forbidden City and now to the Expanse… and they feel helpless; there is nothing they can do for him, they cannot bear his suffering and so they themselves suffer. No one talks, no one sleeps, no one eats; they merely remain on the bridge, watching, waiting for those silver, intimidating clouds to clear and for Aerrow to emerge unscathed. Stork sighs despairingly at the helm, shoulders drooping as he clutches at the ships controls, his safety blanket; Radarr stands beside him, face and palms pressed against the window, the occasional whine escaping his throat – it is not often that his best friend leaves him behind. Junko moves to pat the creature, but Finn stays back, arms folded and face contorted into a mixed expression of concern and annoyance; part of him admires his Sky Knight, the other part curses him for taking them on a wild goose chase, mocks his naivety.

What if Piper really is gone? Is Aerrow seriously going to throw his own life away for a girl who is practically dead? What would _she_ say about this whole thing! Probably something along the lines of blaming Finn, because _he_ should have looked after his leader, should have spoken some sense into him; because it was _always _Finn's fault! He never did _anything_ right!

Suddenly, the sharp-shooter breaks. "Why the **HELL** are we doing this? What is **WRONG** with everyone? Is it not obvious how stupid this whole thing is? We're allowing our Sky Knight to run around on this wild goose chase in the vain chance that he's going to find something to bring back Piper – except she's **GONE**! He's going to give his life away; he's going to waste his chances, his _future_ for someone who is **never – coming – back.** And it's… it's… just not…" tears emerge in Finn's sky-blue eyes, the rest of his team watch, stunned and horrified, as the man breaks down into a mess of rage and despair. The blonde is mortified, he doesn't mean it… he just wants her back… he wants the team back; it's not the same anymore, it hasn't been the same in so long…

He just can't take the silence.

Junko's expression saddens, he approaches his best friend cautiously and places one of his large paws upon Finn's shoulder; the Sharp Shooter looks up at him and smiles weakly, placing his own hand on top in a bid to welcome the mental, physical support. The blonde doesn't need to say anything, the Wallop understands, they _all_ understand; Piper's departure left a hole in all their hearts, she was a part of their happy, if not slightly dysfunctional family and now they can do nothing but wait for their leader to risk his neck in a bid to retrieve her from the darkness of Cyclonia. They are helpless, sitting on the sidelines, able to do nothing… and it's destroying them.

Finn loves Piper, he always has done, she was a sister to him – despite all their arguments and disagreements, there was no one he depended on more than her; true, Junko was his best friend and Aerrow was his inspiration, but no one understood him as well as she did. Piper was the one who listened, who empathised, the one who kept him in line. He wants to be out there with Aerrow, searching for her, taking down the Dark Ace for ever trying to take her from them; instead he's stuck in the _Condor_, waiting and watching and waiting some more.

Because maybe, _just maybe_, Piper will come back to him – to **all** of them.

* * *

There they are again, those familiar soft chimes of laughter. The ship looks empty but Aerrow knows he's not alone; there's that flash of midnight blue, a figure darting past behind him, he turns – a twinkle of violent orange. The laughter again.

This is all about the chase, that's how it works – you don't get run down, you walk into a trap… you follow the bait.

_That's how she captures you_.

Piper worked in exactly the same way; those momentary glances, the soft silence, every time she brushed her skin against his – that warm, almost burning sensation where contact had been made. She was subtle, graceful, always acting the innocent but so cunning and intelligent – had she ever allied with Cyclonis, the Storm Hawks would have never stood a chance against her. Piper was dangerous, _powerful_, beautiful…

Except this time, Aerrow has to remind himself that this _isn't Piper._

That one thought throws the Sky Knight off balance, he blinks, confused; when did he return to the _Condor_? When did he even leave the Great Expanse? Did he get what he went in there for? Where was his team? Where was the Hypno Stone?

"_Aren't you forgetting something?"_

Aerrow's heart stops in his throat; there's a shadow in front of him, being cast against the opposite wall. He knows who's there, her voice is all too familiar, he's heard her speak to him a thousand times before in his dreams; but this time, something is different… This Piper isn't like the Piper he sees every day, this Piper doesn't sound just like a memory – this Piper sounds _real_.

He turns ever so slightly and what he sees makes him falter, there is Piper – a solid Piper, standing right behind him; she's the right age, she's tall and slender, her curves sit in all the right places, she's a proper woman – but her carnelian eyes remain the same, they are so alive it almost kills Aerrow to look. This girl in front of him, isn't a figment of his imagination, she is real; her heart beats, her chest rises with every breath she takes… and she is his once again. Piper has come back to him… _his _Piper.

The Sky Knight takes a step forward, pulse racing, blood pumping, head spinning; his navigator stands still, one hand placed in the curve of her waist, a bright smile resting on her dark lips. She watches him come closer, and Aerrow doesn't stop until they are centimetres apart; their faces are almost touching, he can feel her breath against his skin and it makes his entire body shiver with pleasure and anticipation. Excitement bubbles beneath the surface, tears are rising; he lifts his hands towards her, not daring to touch lest she disappear before him like she did in every single dream, his expression one of wonderment.

"Is it… Piper… is it really _you?_"

Another laugh. The flash of amber. "Of course it's me, silly… who else would it be?"

That question raises some unconscious part of Aerrow, it pangs uncomfortably, trying to tell him that something is not right; he brushes it aside. He has everything he has ever wanted right here, Piper; _his_ Piper – alive, and all his.

The tears stream down his cheeks, he can barely contain himself; "_you came back to me."_

His navigator retains that self-confident smirk, one eyebrow raised in a smug manner; "of course I did, Aerrow – I'd always find a way back to _you_. Isn't it what you wanted? Am I not what you have _always _wanted?"

"_Piper…"_

"_Aerrow, don't."_

The man stops in his tracks, partially ready to embrace the girl before him; she stands, waiting patiently, unaware of the sudden change in Aerrow's heart. He falters, the words just spoken to him have come from a different Piper, the Piper still buried deep inside of him; the tone seems somewhat different to the Piper that he can see, they're distant… like a memory… except, this voice – the one in his head – speaks to him in a way that only he can understand. The Piper in front of him has suddenly become **too** real, **too** perfect; she is like an angel, sculpted into the way Aerrow _sees_ Piper… not how she is – or was.

This Piper in front of him, her skin sparkles like morning dew on blades of grass, her eyes shine like crystals, her features are flawless; but she is cold, she is an image, a _vision_…

… a trick.

Aerrow pulls back, shaking his head a little. His surroundings blur, the _Condor_ suddenly seems less solid; for only a second, the Sky Knight captures the image of a figure behind the projection, a dazzling blue creature… gleaming teeth, pure white eyes. _The Sky Siren._

Piper's expression has hardened.

"What's wrong, Aerrow? Are you okay? Here… come and lie down…"

She tries to take his hand but he pulls away from her, his heart is pounding now for entirely different reasons, because yet again he has experienced that rather horrid sensation of being let down… this time, by someone else. The _Condor _flickers in and out of vision, Aerrow briefly feels the wind against his face and is suddenly thankful that he put his ride onto auto-pilot; but the uplifting effects of this realisation quickly disappear when he catches sight of the ice cold look on Piper's face. Slowly, he backs away; the navigator's eyes flash with intense anger, she bares her teeth – _are those… fangs?_

"Aerrow… what are you doing?"

"You're – you're not… not Piper."

"What are you _talking_ about, of _course _I'm Piper."

"No… no you're not…"

Images of Piper flash constantly at the forefront of his mind, he curses himself for believing just for a moment that this girl before him could ever be the woman he loves… the woman he desires more than anything.

As he thinks this, the Piper in front stretches her smile into a twisted sneer and Aerrow realises that she is all too aware of the stream of thoughts he is now racing through; it's no surprise that this vision is so vivid: his longing is so great that the Siren is feeding off his energy, she has tapped into his desire for Piper and her grip on his heart is solid. He cannot help himself, even though he knows that it is not Piper he can see, even though he knows that one touch could condemn him to the empty expanse for life, he can't help but experience that thirst for her body, that longing of completeness.

Some part of the Sky Knight tells him that it is all over, he doesn't know how to defeat his own longing…

"_The darker Piper from your nightmares cannot taint the true Piper you wield in your soul. She is the key to repairing the stone, but you are the key to repairing Piper. Do not fail, brave Sky Knight."_

Aerrow gasps, the words of the Oracle cut through the atmosphere like a blade, they clear his mind and sharpen his focus just enough for him to remember the satchel hanging over his shoulder; he scrambles to remove it and buries his hands into the opening, biting back curse words as his fingers scrape against the sharp fragments of the Hypno Stone. He cups his palms underneath them and pulls them out so that he can see them, Piper is edging closer, claw-like fingers reaching out for him; in desperation, Aerrow pushes the fragments towards her.

The Siren's apparition falters, she peers down at the jewel and then back at Aerrow; Piper moves a little closer, but Aerrow holds his ground, crouched on the floor, arms and hands outstretched towards her. He shuts off his memories, he bars any image of Piper from his thoughts, he thinks about the Stone.

"_One day Aerrow, one day you will win_."

Aerrow thinks about that day, he blinks and stands upright; Piper is looking at him, recoiling a little at the blaring light of the crystal fragments, she is clearly confused. The Sky Knight decides to end her confusion. "Fix it for me."

"What?" Piper is incredulous, the eyes of the Siren shine through.

"I said: 'fix it for me.'"

"No. Why should I?"

The young man understands finally that simply ordering the apparition around will result in its being suspicious; he has to play this right; he has to play with his own wishes, his own desires in order to convince the Siren to trick itself. He looks at Piper, his expression softens and his hands are lowered a little. "Piper… **you** are my greatest desire…"

- At this, Piper's expression turns sly –

"… but it has been _so long_; I have to know Piper, _I have to know_ that this isn't me going crazy. The Piper I know could fix this for me, the Piper I know and **love** would save me the pain of fearing rejection and loss all over again. Only _you_ can fix this crystal, I've seen you so many times in my dreams; I will not believe that this is you in front of me, until you do the impossible."

The Sky Siren blinks in confusion, Aerrow sees through the dark skin and the amber eyes to the ghastly creature beneath; his determination strengthens. "_Please Piper…"_

"The Piper you know could fix this? She – I – I could do that?"

"Of course you could Piper, you can do anything when you set your mind to it… you're unstoppable, beyond powerful. _I love you Piper… I want it to truly be you… I want you to have come back to me. _You are what I desire most._"_

Piper's eyes snap upwards towards Aerrow's, they spend a moment staring at each other, both working out the other's limits; finally, the Sky Knight allows the memories of his navigator to flood through his brain again. He feels the Sky Siren picking out the details, images of Piper working in her lab, cutting through a new crystal, plotting a new course for the _Condor_… he feels her learning the history of the true Piper, he feels her becoming his Crystal Mage…

Finally Piper relaxes, smiles cunningly… "when have I ever let you down, Aerrow?" Then her expression changes again, to one that Aerrow finds familiar; her brow furrows and she chews her lip as she mulls over the broken fragments that he holds up to her. "This Stone was destroyed by a powerful blast from the Oracle Stone, its sister crystal; I will need that Stone in order to repair this one."

Aerrow can barely believe his luck, handing Piper the fragments of the Hypno Stone, his hands are free to seek out the Oracle Stone in his bag; as he reveals it, Piper's eyes light up the way they used to when she was excited. The Sky Knight is amazed, the more he thinks about the true Piper, the more the image in front of him becomes like her… as though his memories are steadily imprinting themselves upon her. But he keeps his mind clear, he cannot afford to lose himself in this vision – there is a _real_ Piper out there waiting for him.

The Crystal Mage gestures for him to follow her, they walk to a nearby table on the bridge and both set down their stones; Aerrow stands back as Piper works her magic, moved by how real this creation has suddenly become. "This shouldn't be too difficult, seeing as the last time these two stones were used, they were both connected… the Hypno Stone should have maintained an imprint of its sister stone – a memory, if you will, and vice versa. They are two parts of the same original crystal, but their uses have changed over time; nevertheless, with the complete Oracle Stone, all I need to do is reverse the polarity and… voila… one key repairs another."

The Oracle Stone in her hand emits a vibrant white light that engulfs the shattered crimson fragments of the Hypno Stone; Aerrow peers over Piper's shoulder, amazed and bewildered. "But… you've made it look so _simple! How did you…"_

"I was the last person to use the crystal, I share the imprints and the memories of these two stones; it's not hard to reverse the process when you're the one who initiated it in the first place. And besides, these stones were meant to work in harmony regardless of how they rebound off one another; you cannot have light without darkness, love without hatred… simple, really."

After another few moments, the light surrounding the two crystals fades away and Aerrow gasps as his eyes fall upon the complete Hypno Stone; a crystal the colour of blood, as large as the heart of a human – the power it emits seems to act like a pulse, making it all too like the heart of a human too. The Sky Knight shudders for a second before picking it up lightly and gazing through its ruby red casing; Piper stands proudly, waiting for appraisal. Realising this, Aerrow quickly packs the Hypno Stone away then turns to his navigator and takes its sister crystal from her open hand; he looks at her expression, so full of expectation…

"Thank you Piper, now… I must go."

And then he turns to leave.

Suddenly, the room goes cold and Aerrow feels his body stiffen with discomfort; the air has suddenly become hard to breathe, there is a chill passing by him. He continues walking away, down the corridor of the _Condor_ but he doesn't get far enough…

"**Stop.**" Piper's voice is no longer the way he remembers it, it is harsh, ear-splitting even; the Sky Knight falters, allows his eyes to flicker back to where he has just come from. The Crystal Mage looks more like a Siren now, her eyes are white, there is no honey or amber within them; her hair is darker in colour, it hangs over her face… her fangs are gleaming. This Piper behind him is really, _really_ angry. "**Just where do you think you're going?**"

Aerrow doesn't answer, he keeps his back turned but he's frozen on the spot; he is all too aware that the vision could turn ugly. His fears sweep over him, the Piper he loved is disappearing fast and the Piper from his nightmares is gathering influence over the surroundings; he doesn't know what to do.

…but then those familiar warm tones soothe his troubled mind.

"_Run, Aerrow… just run; don't stop, just keep running. Don't let her catch you."_

The Sky Knight doesn't bat an eyelid, instead his instinct kicks in and he makes a break for it, racing out of the bridge and into the first corridor; Piper behind screams and charges after him, her feet barely touching the floor, almost gliding. The _Condor_ flickers around him, the walls thinning, moving as though alive; the vision is breaking down, it no longer needs to hold up the false pretence of being real. Aerrow's heart is pounding, his head is throbbing; he's terrified, the darker Piper of his nightmares is a horrific spectacle and it breaks his heart to think that part of his mind must taint her in this way.

"**Come back HERE, Sky Knight! You can't escape ME! I am EVERYWHERE!"**

And suddenly she's in front of him, appearing with a blinding flash of light; he stumbles backwards, still clutching the satchel with carrying the stones in his hand, praying to the skies that the Hypno Stone doesn't shatter all over again. Piper laughs, the screech rebounding off the breathing walls; Aerrow can only stare up at the image in horror, she is terrifying, but he bites back his fear – there has to be something he can do.

'Piper… help me… _please…_'

"_Hold onto my memory, Aerrow; hold onto what we had."_

He does so, pulling up all the adventures they shared to the surface of his mind; their first battle on Cyclonia, discovering the _Condor_, learning of Piper's power, travelling to the Stratosphere, their last moments on the _Condor_…

"_Aerrow, I need you to look after something for me…"_

"_Piper… I trust you_…"

"_I grabbed something for you on the way out."_

"_You better make it back."_

"_If we've got to go down… at least we're going down together."_

"_Aerrow, I'm so sorry."_

_ "Because I believe in you, Piper."_

_"I'm going out to find her!"_

"_You're a Sky Knight…"_

_ "I love you, I love you so much… but I'm not ever coming back."_

The ghastly Piper before him falters, her face falls into one of fear and despair, as though waking up from some kind of nightmare, almost horrified at what she's done; she looks at her hands, her talons and curls her hands into balls, screwing her eyes shut in disbelief. She grunts in pain, falls to her feet, claws at her chest; Aerrow reaches out a hand to help her but she jumps away from him, not allowing him to even touch her.

"No, Aerrow! You can't… you _mustn't_."

"Piper, what's going on!"

She looks at him sadly, expression contorted in pain, amber eyes fading away; "I'm not Piper, I'm just an image; your strongest desire, your greatest weakness. I'm a _lie_, built from your memories, your wishes, your _pain_ – and I'm dangerous, Aerrow. You have to… you have to get out of here… before it's too late."

"I don't understand! Please let me understand!"

"You always were so strong, Sky Knight; a heart of gold and a soul as pure as the Aurora Stone – how could the Siren ever taint you? She's using your memories of Piper to create me, a version she can use to trap you here to feed off your…" She grimaces with discomfort again, fingers still clawing at her chest; "… ah, your energy."

"Then… then why are you _helping me_!"

"Because you **love** her too much! There's only so much of a lie I can create, the Piper you see is too perfect, too pure; but… the Siren, she is trying her hardest! You have to get out of here, before I become out of control; soon I will stop being Piper, I will be that demon again and then there will be nothing – NOTHING – to stop me from ending your life! You want to see Piper again, don't you? Then get out of here!"

"But… how…"

The would-be Piper looks up at him, doubled over in agony, tears rolling down her paling cheeks; a very sad smile rests upon her dark lips. "Aerrow, you have to end the dream; if all you want in life, is to have Piper alive and well and at your side, you need to force the Siren to give you what you don't want. You need to be ripped from this dream world and taken back to reality… you need to end this… you need to end… me." A ragged breath. "_Aerrow… finish it now… please, b-be-before it-it's t-too __**late**__…."_

The Sky Knight is appalled to find that his hand has found its way to one of his blades resting on his shoulders, he grips it tightly trying not to even fathom ending the apparition in the way it demands; he can't do it, he just _can't_ - whether just an image or not, that is Piper standing in front of him… or an essence of her. How could he even think just for one second about slicing his blade through her fragile skin… watching the light fade from her eyes?

_How does he even begin to think about it!_

"A-Aerrow! **PLEASE."**

The girl is changing, her skin is whitening, her teeth sharpening; she is returning to her previous form and he backs away in denial, fear, unwillingness. This is too much to ask. It's a price too high for him to pay; the apparition screams in pain and anger, lashing about as claws rip through the ends of her fingers. The demon is being torn apart, desperately trying to hold onto the memories of a happier Piper, a loving Piper… a _loved_ Piper; but it is no use, the Siren wins, the urge to kill grows stronger. As though only noticing him for the first time, her white eyes snap to Aerrow who stops moving and stands paralysed; she cries out in anguish, bears her teeth, prepares to engulf him in the nightmare, swallow him whole.

He doesn't move, like the false Piper he is consumed with his own inner turmoil; but he watches her approaching from along the corridor, he notes the grip on his blade tightening, the sheer determination to live pulses through him. But is it reason enough to carry on?

The Crystal Mage charges at him, the gap between them rapidly grows less and less, this is it; what does he do? What else is there to do! The creature is nearly on top of him, it's going to kill him, what has all of this been for!

And then he remembers.

Piper.

This is all for Piper.

"**FOR PIPER!"**

...

The blade slices through her stomach as though she were made of paper, there is no blood, no mess, only the sound of white hot crystal energy burning through delicate flesh; the Siren curls up against the weapon, looking up at the traumatised Aerrow, the whites of her eyes turning back to amber. Tears rolls down the cheeks of the Sky Knight as he no longer sees a demonic creature skewered by his sword, instead it is the girl he loves; he daren't look away from her as she doubles up, he daren't remove his weapon, he daren't even blink. It's like experiencing Piper's last moments from all those years ago, the moments he missed…

"I'm so sorry."

She smiles, "don't be, I can't even feel it."

She's lying.

The walls are fading, Aerrow can hear the whir of the engine from his Sky Ride; there are voices in the distant, the roar of the Condor, someone is holding him, talking to him. His surroundings grow distant, even Piper still attached to the blade begins to disappear; finally, she touches him, holds his arm, looking to comfort.

"Aerrow, let me go…"

Sobbing, the Sky Knight removes the blade from her stomach and allows her failing body to fall against him; he holds her like a child, her head reclined over his arm, fingers clutching at the material against his chest. Her eyes are closing, her body is trembling, fading away with the rest of the vision; seeing his tears she coos and strokes his cheek.

"Shhhhh, Aerrow; it'll be okay. I'm not real, it will be as though I never existed. You will find the real Piper, she will come back to you and you will be together… _I promise."_

"I don't care if you're not her, you are to me. And I love you."

One last, heart-broken smile. "I-I kn-know you d-do. I th-think P-Pi-Piper loves y-you t-t-too."

And then she falls limp and Aerrow scoops her broken body into him before she fades away like a ghost, he sobs like a child, everything around him is disappearing; someone is calling him, holding him, but he doesn't respond. The satchel bearing the crystals lies beside him, he clutches it, willing for it to not disappear; he feels cold, exhausted, alone. His eyes begin to close, someone cries out his name one final time before he slips away into unconsciousness, the darkness consuming him.

And then nothing. Just nothing.


	9. Broken Promises

**A/N: **i'm not going to lie, this is one heavy chapter. perhaps there's too much going on it? but i didn't want to exceed by ten chapter plan and i always knew what was going to happen in this chapter so yeah :3 the opening is an attempt to also explain what happened last chapter in case it got a bit confusing, 'cause a lot of it made up on the spot! APOLOGIES go to anyone who has waited for this, i am terrible for keeping deadlines; the summer rolls in and i just sit back and relax. ;D moving on, i hope you enjoy this... **JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT!** a short and sweet conclusion to what has been the biggest project i have ever taken on.

my sincere thanks go to all those who have patiently waited and read this. i'm writing it for you all.

* * *

Broken Promises

"_Aerrow, dude… wake up; come on, man! Wake up!"_

"_You're probably making the entire situation worse, Finn; stop shaking him."_

"_But, what's wr-wong with h-him? H-he's going to be o-okay… right?"_

"_Too soon to tell, I mean, it could be fatal; perhaps the Sky Siren infected him with Parasitic Spine Crunchers? Or Mucus Bugs? Or…"_

Aerrow stirs in the darkness and mentally winces, as though something beyond physical is sore and wounded. The voices grow louder, the one insisting that he isn't going to make it continuing to list every possible problem that he is suffering from unaware of the patient's growing consciousness. The Sky Knight smiles a little to himself, he'd recognise those melodramatic tones anywhere…

"Stork, I swear to the heavens now, that if you mention Mind Worms I'm going to throw your AN3000 Helmet off this ship…" He opens one eye and his smile widens and Radarr, Finn and Junko let out a wild cheer of celebration; Stork's eye twitches as he lets out an exasperated sigh.

"Yes, he'll be back to his old self in no time… _unfortunately_." Then he peers into his leader's face, "_but when the Mind Worms come to get you, I'm not sharing my helmet for anyone."_ The Merb stalks away, back to the wheel of the _Condor_ and Aerrow laughs a little as he pushes himself to sit up in his bed; his muscles are sore and his head is still throbbing persistently but thankfully, everything is in working order. Radarr jumps onto his friend's lap and nuzzles against his chest; Aerrow strokes behind his ears absent-mindedly and looks up to his friends standing beside him.

"How long was I out?"

Finn folds his arms, trying to play it cool; "only the night," but he fails in the attempt and his calm façade breaks – "we were worried man, we just found you outside of the Expanse, completely passed out on your ride. You were muttering things, going through spasms and wincing and crying; Stork was convinced you'd gone half crazy."

This isn't all that surprising.

"Stork believes every malady stems from insanity."

"Yeah well this time I'd say he had good reason to claim it, in those first few minutes of getting you back on the _Condor_, you were in such bad shape we thought you'd never wake up."

Junko looks over Finn's shoulder, "you said her name a lot, Aerrow; did you see her?"

A pause.

"Who's name? See who?"

"…Piper…"

Another pause.

"What happened, dude?"

Aerrow lets out a short sigh and looks away from his wing-man, it's hard to even contemplate an answer to that question, seeing as he's not even sure himself; there are gaps in his memory, blotted out images… like a part of him won't let him remember, almost as though it never happened. His eyes dart back to his team members to see them ogling in his direction, expecting some kind of answer and he realises that he has no option but to reveal the truth.

"I'm not entirely sure… I don't think I can remember."

Finn places his hands on his hips and raises an eyebrow, then jolts into action, as though somebody has finally switched a light on in his brain; snapping his fingers, he darts from the room leaving Junko and Aerrow to look on, confused. The pair hears him returning and before he has even entered Aerrow's chamber he begins to speaks to them: "Maybe these will jog your memory…"

What Finn returns with shocks Aerrow to the core, his mouth drops open as the sharp-shooter approaches him, holding in his hands two crystals; one, a vibrant purple, the other a violent ruby-red. The Sky Knight reaches out towards them, not daring to believe his own eyes; "… it's – it's the… the _Hypno Stone."_

The cold surface of both crystals finally comes into contact with his hands and he bites back a pained cry as memories and images flood his mind, swarm around him; everything returns, he sees Piper, sees the Siren, sees them both die. Involuntary tears rolls down his cheeks and Finn, Junko and Radarr watch uncomfortably.

"_Aerrow, let me go…"_

"_I don't care if you're not her, you are to me. And I love you."_

He drops the stones into his lap where they remain, glowing with reawakened energy; he stares at them with a frightened expression, unable to believe entirely what he went through only hours ago. But the eyes of his team are upon him and he knows that the least he can do is offer them the details of what happened, because what didn't make sense at the time is that little bit clearer now; the Piper within him is using her logic to guide him through the mist that had surrounded him.

"The Siren, she created a version of Piper to trick me into becoming a prisoner of the Expanse – just as we planned that she would do – and I almost fell for it; she was so _real_, it was so hard to believe that she wasn't our Piper! But some part of me," - he doesn't tell them which part in fear of them thinking him crazy - "realised that it was wrong; she was too perfect, it was all too good to be true. So I asked her to prove to me who she was, I asked her to fix the Hypno Stone because only Piper could do it…"

Finn's mouth is hanging open, "… and she just fixed it? Then and there? After all the drama that stupid thing has caused, she _snapped her fingers_ and _fixed_ it!"

Aerrow nods, lost in thought, reliving the moment when Piper had taken the crystal from his hand, when she had truly looked like _his_ Piper; "yes, she mentioned something about an imprint. The Siren's Piper was so good, was so like the real thing that she must have tricked even the crystal into believing that it was her; because Piper was the last person to use the Oracle Stone, she used her powers to reverse whatever it did to the Hypno Stone. They are twin crystals after all, so I guess that though they're powerful enough to destroy each other, they're linked in a way that means that they can repair each other…"

"But how did this fake Piper get to be so good?"

The Sky Knight ponders this question, "she said something to me, about how the Siren was using my memories of her to create a realistic projection… that's why… when it all turned sour, when the Siren realised that I'd tricked her into repairing the Stone… that's why Piper couldn't hurt me. Because she and the Siren were two separate entities, the Siren was being controlled by the projection of Piper, by the memories and the feelings I still had; she helped me to escape because she had become more realistic than the Sky Siren had ever intended. For a short moment, she was truly Piper."

His team all stand in awed silence, until Junko speaks out. "Aerrow, how did you escape?"

His leader suddenly feels his insides tighten, he shudders involuntarily; there's a chilling sensation passing over him that he doesn't think he'll ever be free from. "Piper…" he croaks, "she told me how to get out. She told me I had to end the fantasy by destroying the thing I desired the most, because that's the weakness of the Siren – if you ignore what you want, she is too weak to control you."

"… you mean you…?"

"The Piper in the dream told me to kill her, and I did… I murdered her out of selfishness, when I didn't even deserve to live…_"_

Silence falls upon the Storm Hawks, Aerrow has turned away in shame; Radarr stands on his back legs with a paw pressed against his friend's chest as he looks up in concern, Junko only looks at the ground remorsefully. But Finn stands solid, mind racing and his fists clenched; he can't take this anymore, the guilt that hangs over his leader's shoulders should not exist; and Aerrow needs to know it.

"Enough of this."

Everyone turns to him, shocked by the twinge of anger in his tone.

"When Piper sacrificed herself, you promised to never take that for granted; she gave the Atmos life and hope and freedom. Sacrifice was written in Piper's destiny and this Siren Piper, whether she was friend or foe sacrificed _her life_ so we could get the real one _back_. She knew the price, just like the real one did; don't let both their deaths be in vain, Aerrow." Finn places a hand on his leader's shoulder and smiles sadly but warmly; his blue eyes shine with new life, a confidence that wasn't there before. "You are going to Cyclonia, Aerrow; you've got the stones, you've got the means to bring her back. _We're winning, man…_ isn't that what you've always wanted?"

And finally the smile returns to the Sky Knight's face. "You're right Finn. Thank you." He takes his friend's hand in his own and shakes it warmly; "it's time I got over the past."

The Sharp Shooter nods: "to the future, then."

The Sky Knight looks at his depleted team with a feverous new energy: "_to Cyclonia."_

_

* * *

_

"Are you ready for this, dude? I mean… are you sure you don't want –"

Aerrow raises a hand to silence his team mate but smiles gratefully nonetheless; "I have to do this alone, Finn."

"But what happens if… if you don't _make it back, Aerrow! We're not a team without you!"_

The two men stand together in the _Condor_, their entire friendship surrounding them, hanging in the balance; they've been through so much together, were orphaned together, formed the _Storm Hawks_ together… to think that it could all be at an end now when it should have come to an end seven years ago rises the tension resting between them. There is too much history between them, there's nothing either can say that will lessen the importance of the next few hours; they both know that this isn't fair, that they deserve the ending they dreamed of all those years ago. Fate owes the Storm Hawks a happy ending, but fate has a way of dealing out the wrong cards and these two men know that fact well enough.

Aerrow squeezes Finn's shoulder, "we're not a team without Piper, either."

Finn scowls; "so it's both of you or neither, then? What a sorry sight we'll be without a leader **and** a navigator. Can you just see Harrier's face at the next Sky Council debate! He'll die laughing…"

The pair exchange amused glances before the atmosphere turns serious again, the Sky Knight's expression turns to one that Finn has seen before, the one that tells him to trust Aerrow's judgement, to trust his leader; the one that makes him feel guilty when he doesn't obey orders.

"Finn, I promised Piper a long time ago that we'd both make it back; I've never broken a promise before, and this one is long overdue. This is more than just a grudge match between me and the Dark Ace, this is me setting my own wrongs right, this is me keeping the promise I made to the only woman I've ever loved."

And after that, there is nothing else to say; Finn knows Aerrow too well to think that his mind can be changed so instead, he sighs, a defeated man. "Okay, okay – so the plan is, use the crystals to bring back Piper, stop the Dark Ace from bringing back Cyclonis and then defeat the Dark Ace all single handed? … I like this plan, I can see where this plan is one that Piper herself would be proud of; absolutely _nothing_ can go wrong…"

Aerrow chuckles a little, catching the mischievous glimmer in Finn's eyes and the pair stands united, watching their remaining team mates join them on the bridge of the _Condor. _This time it is Finn who lowers himself to the floor to allow Radarr to clamber onto his own shoulder whilst Aerrow looks at his Sky Monkey apologetically; "don't worry Radarr, just this one mission and we'll be together again."

Radarr chirps happily, accepting Aerrow's hand and nuzzling into it with his face before pulling away to look at his leader; Junko, Stork and Finn do the same before all turning to look upon the crimson clouds that engulf the ruins of Cyclonia just outside of their ship. Thunder rumbles in the distance.

"Well Aerrow, if you need us you know where we'll be – here, safe and warm, in the _Condor_ far away from the doom and gloom and the sheer unadulterated misery of Cyclonia…" Stork twitches nervously and then adds with a sinister gleam in his yellow eyes: _"I almost wish I were going with you."_

"…thanks, Stork…"

"Good luck, Aerrow; stay safe."

"Thanks, Junko."

"See you, dude."

A sad smile.

"Bye, Finn…"

One last stroke of Radarr's fur.

"You're in charge old friend…"

And then, Aerrow picks up his satchel and turns away, heading for the Hangar and to his ride, not daring to glance back in case the team see the fear on his face. He clambers onto his bike, sparks the engine and sets off, to be quickly engulfed by the thick wall of ruby mist.

His team, onboard the _Condor_ watch silently, unmoving, waiting for him to disappear. Then Stork turns to Finn beside him, the Sharp Shooter looking a little darker and little more severe than usual – his own eyes have not left the spot of cloud where Aerrow entered. The merb watches him for a second and then asks the question perching on his lips, "are you _sure_ about this?"

Those blue eyes flash towards the Carrier Pilot and they remain unblinking as, without a smile Finn moves towards his weapon. "Oh, I'm sure, Stork, I'm sure. We have our _own_ promises to keep."

* * *

It's been but a few days since Aerrow was last here, not even a week in fact and yet in that short space of time the Sky Knight can't help but feel that there is something different about Cyclonia. The terra that looked abandoned and crippled, though still far beyond its former glory, holds life within its boundaries; this is a bad sign, Aerrow fears that this time, his visit will not run so smoothly.

He parks his ride where he did before and slips through the empty chambers that are still devoid of life and yet seem that little bit more threatening; the Sky Knight notices that the dust has been disturbed beneath his feet and a clear path lies before him – the rubble and debris has been removed… but such work would have required more than one man. Either that or the Dark Ace has been very, _very_ busy. Aerrow's pulse quickens, he pulls the satchel further onto his shoulder and removes a blade from its holster; his green eyes narrow as he paces through the darkness, quite prepared to kill anything that chooses to stand between himself and Piper.

He is not leaving here empty handed.

The throne room is empty, what little crimson light passed through the cracks the last time he visited has been blotted out, only the steady fluorescent glow from his weapon provides the Sky Knight with an aid for seeing his surroundings. He can just make out the dim silhouette of the crooked throne, placed high above on its pedestal but the Storm engine is now nowhere to be seen; the Dark Ace clearly doesn't trust Aerrow to uphold his end of the bargain…

"You're a little later than I expected; Sky Knight… _you're slipping_."

The words echo around the chamber but Aerrow can't quite work out where they've come from, he turns sharply, grows disorientated, shadows move around him; he grows angry.

"Show yourself!"

There is a deep chuckle, as a ray of light abruptly appears in the centre of the room, like a beam from a blood red moon; a darkened figure steps forward, the Dark Ace, his whitened face looking even more horrific with the reddish tinge, the raised scars looking more like veins than tears through his flesh. Aerrow grips his blade tighter, but his foe makes no move, he just stands there, looking… _amused._

"I hope you came back successful; or Piper and I will be _very_ disappointed."

"Show her to me."

"Why would I do that?"

"A deal requires trust – you don't get what you want if don't get what I want – see how this works?"

Another cold chuckle, Aerrow takes the chance to drink in the Dark Ace's appearance; yet again, something is different, his armour has been recently polished, his clothing repaired, his beard shaved. He looks _new_.

The laughter stops. "Your desire is greater than mine, Aerrow; and I can use that to my advantage."

This time it is Aerrow's turn to laugh; "I wouldn't say that. After all, I'm not the one who looks all squeaky clean; has it been so terrible living without someone telling you what to do? Can't you wait to be treated like a dog again?"

The Cyclonian's expression sours, the Storm Hawk smirks. "Got you, Ace."

"I beg to differ…" with a snap of his gnarled fingers, a second ray of light appears just behind the soldier and Aerrow's heart stops short of a beat. There stands Piper, unmoving, expressionless, but _alive_; the Sky Knight moves to run to her but the Dark Ace bars his way with his crippled Energy Blade that he has produced from its sheath. The broken man reveals his white fangs as Aerrow scowls. "_Got you, Aerrow."_

The Storm Hawk holds steady for a moment, eyes darting from his enemy to his team mate before sighing and falling back; the Dark Ace, pleased with this decision lowers his weapon. The younger man is fighting to keep calm, his head a mess of conflicting emotions; he had hoped, perhaps somewhat naively, that he could somehow get near to Piper before being forced to hand over the crystal – that way he could bring her back and prevent the Ace from restoring Cyclonis too. But he should have known that the Talon would never let him near her without a fight.

He snaps.

A fight, it would have to be.

But even before he can act, a fist rams into his jaw and sends him flying to the cold, stone ground; he looks up to see the Cyclonian towering above him, glowering down at the Storm Hawk sprawled out on the floor. "_Please, Aerrow_," he hisses, "did you really think that I wasn't expecting that?"

Aerrow barely makes it out of the way as the red blade is swiftly rammed into the ground where he was only a second ago; the metal is caught in the rock and the Storm Hawks takes his chance to clamber to his feet and remove his second sword. The Dark Ace stumbles backward as he finally frees his weapon, just managing to weakly block an attack from the Sky Knight; the pair clash again but Aerrow is clearly the more capable combatant – he grows more confident, determined to see this through to the end. After one mighty blow, the Cyclonian's energy blade is knocked from his bony hands and hurtles through the air, skidding across the floor and finally coming to a halt beside Piper's feet.

The Dark Ace curses as he clutches his bleeding fingers, hunched over, biting back the pain; Aerrow stands there, victorious.

_Or at least, he thinks he is._

"It's over, Dark Ace; you've lost."

The laughter that erupts from his foe's thin lips sends a cold chill down his spine, his hairs stand on end; he realises his stupidity almost immediately. The fight was too fair, or perhaps… too _unfair_… for the Dark Ace. The Cyclonian may have been twisted but he was never one to risk his own life, and he was never one to lose a battle with such little _dignity_.

"Did you never listen when you were younger, Aerrow? _I never lose._"

Aerrow is suddenly blinded as light surrounds him and as his vision clears, his confidence disappears without a trace; his uneasy feelings when he had first approached the terra are finally justified. At least thirty Talons have encircled him; each one wielding a weapon more threatening than the last, all are looking at him with intense loathing and hatred, all looking weary and worn down. In this one room stands the remainders of the once feared Cyclonian army. Taking that into consideration, this band of ragged men looks pretty pitiful, but Aerrow has never had to face thirty such men alone…

Except, Aerrow isn't alone.

"Did someone call for back-up!"

This new voice comes from nowhere and the soldiers fall into confusion and fearful murmurings as the Storm Hawk feels movement behind him; he experiences a moment of relief and frustration as the new entrants onto the scene appear, all a little too familiar to him. Electric blue eyes meet his face; there stands Finn – and Junko – and Stork – and Radarr. For a few seconds, their impending doom is forgotten as Aerrow's annoyance overcomes him.

"What part of '_I have to do this alone' _do you **not **get, Finn!"

His snappy remark is met with a similar response. "And what part of '_being a team_' do **you** not get, Aerrow!"

"It's my duty as a Sky Knight to ensure the safety of the team! I already let Piper slip, I can't lose anyone else!"

But his anger dies as Finn stands tall, that soft, cheeky expression returning to his face; "Aerrow, Piper isn't just your friend, she's _ours_. She's part of the team, and therefore the team should be a part of bringing her back. I said we weren't a team without you, but _you're not a Sky Knight without your team. _And as a team, our duty is to protect each other."

In that moment, Aerrow sees his squadron the way he used to; Piper had left a hole in the Storm Hawks, but then again, so had he…

"Thanks, Finn."

"No problem, dude; anytime you want to be proven wrong, look me up."

But their reunion is cut short by the sharp, sarcastic applause of the Dark Ace who breaks through the circle of Cyclonians; the Storm Hawks ready their weapons as they watch him. "Sorry to break up this very _sentimental_ moment, gentlemen. True, it would have been easier if you hadn't of arrived, but at least now I can collect the whole set! Talons! **Attack!**"

There is a cheer from the soldiers and they rush forward, weapons raised, but immediately the team divides itself just like clockwork; Junko begins battering several men at once, Radarr takes to biting the legs of anyone unfortunate enough to approach him, Finn is busy using his marksman skills to break apart the crumbling ceiling with his energy arrows, sending it crashing down onto the heads of the enemy, and even Stork gets involved, blinding any fool who dares touch him with his new-fangled anti-Talon spray.

Aerrow feels his blood pumping, the thrill of the fight taking hold as he ducks and dives and slices his way through; but a part of him never forgets his mission, eyes constantly looking out for the Dark Ace and Piper who lie beyond the scuffle.

Suddenly there is a cry from behind, Aerrow turns and watches, horrified as Stork is overwhelmed by attackers after accidentally spraying himself; in an attempt to help him, Radarr is thrown across the room and grabbed by the scruff of the neck. Distracted by the commotion, Junko is pounced up on and held down, his knuckle busters removed; Finn is soon to follow, having his weapon yanked from his hands and his arms held tightly behind his back. Desperate, Aerrow lunges forward, swiping his blade through the air in order to move closer to his team but distracted, the Sky Knight is vulnerable; a heavy blow to the back of the neck knocks him over, his blades fall to the floor as two remaining Talons subdue him.

Another sarcastic applause.

The team look up, their expressions bitter and angered; the Dark Ace merely looks amused as he approaches the Storm Hawks, eyes fixated on Aerrow. But then they move over him and fall upon the satchel laying beside his feet, seeing the change in attention, the Sky Knight struggles to be free but nothing comes of it. Smooth, glass-like fingers of the Cyclonian slip into the bag and his face lights up evilly as they come into contact with the similar surface of a crystal – _the _crystal; Aerrow feels like crying, he tried so hard, _so hard_! And it has all come to nothing.

The Dark Ace's crimson eyes gaze upon the stone hungrily as he pulls it from the bag, he drinks it in, slowly caressing its surface, hardly daring to believe his own senses; but then his eyes return to Aerrow's, and in an odd moment, a glimpse of respect seems to enter his look.

"So, you managed it?" And then it is gone, replaced with a very sinister gleam; one that the Sky Knight has never seen before. "_More fool you…_"

"You see here the makings of the new Cyclonian empire, boys." The Dark Ace cries as he turns and walks away, gesturing to his battered and miniscule band of Talons; Finn laughs to himself but it falls upon deaf ears. "I'll admit they're nothing special, but that's because they lack a leader… a _true_ leader; one that will not fail them, the way _she_ did…"

And finally, the whole room is illuminated; crystals around the room glow eerily in the darkness, allowing the Storm Hawks to fully see their surroundings. What Aerrow sees makes him sick, the others cry out in sheer horror as the Dark Ace cackles insanely; he practically skips to the steps before the alter and bows mockingly to the throne… or rather, to the _occupant_ of the throne before turning a little to his captives.

"_I believe you've met the former queen of Cyclonia, my old master… Master Cyclonis."_

There sits Cyclonis… or what is left of her at least. Because it's plain to see that the woman the Dark Ace has introduced is dead; huge, gaping wounds are visible on her chest and throat and the trail of blood visible over her bony hands and down her crippled legs, onto the steps and over the chair she still occupies. Clumps of her long, ebony hair are missing and what remains is raddled with vomit and blood, her pallid lips are stained with it too and though her entire corpse screams torment and pain, it is nothing compared to her expression; it is a horrific thing to behold but Aerrow can't help but stare, he could have sworn her eyes used to be a bewitching violet… not raw red. Her face tells a story of fear, as though she has died a thousand deaths in one… or as though she had seen it coming.

There is silence throughout the room, except for the chuckling of the Dark Ace; catching sight of their tormented looks he shrugs his shoulders in an exasperated manner. "What? You didn't expect me to declare loyalty to _her_ did you! Do you really think I'd want her to gain her powers? That _bitch_ beat me into the ground, treated me like an _animal_; she turned me into… into… **into THIS!** **THIS** **HIDEOUS, MONSTROUS CREATURE! **And I **HATE** her for it!"

In a sudden burst of anger, he tears up the steps and rips the corpse from her seat with his free hand, throwing her down onto the floor; there is a sickening crack, but no fresh blood runs from her wounds, she's been dead for too long. Aerrow looks at the clotting around the wounds and the green tinge beginning to appear and makes the safe assumption that Cyclonis has been dead from the moment the Dark Ace brought her back to Cyclonia.

This dawning realisation sickens the Sky Knight's stomach… he and the Dark Ace had made a deal, but Aerrow had assumed that the Cyclonian had wanted to bring his master back; in fact, he'd even _said_ as much…

… hadn't he?

The Talon has seen the change in Aerrow's expression and his anger turns to satisfaction, picking himself up again and calming down, the man makes his way back down the steps; a soldier pulls Piper forward so that she stands beside him, her expression still empty, completely unaware of what is going on. But the Sky Knight, and the remaining Storm Hawks are becoming quickly aware of the trick that has taken place.

"You _bastard_." The venom in Aerrow's voice couldn't be any more powerful.

His enemy returns the comment by raising his eyebrow, pulling an amused expression; an arm wraps around the waist of the Crystal Mage and he pulls her to him, he runs his lips across her own and down her neck and she shivers involuntarily but does nothing else to react. The Sky Knight's blood is pumping, his mind is racing; the desperation returns.

"You got what you want, Ace; now let her go, that was the deal, so let her go."

A crimson eye meets his face with a disinterested look, "come now, Aerrow; you're not stupid. You know I wouldn't do that."

"But why? _Why? Why are you doing this to her!"_

Tears are forming in his emerald eyes, Junko is sobbing quietly behind him making the whole situation that much worse; he's failed again, his entire team are going to die – and it's his entire fault.

"I told you I wanted a Master, I didn't say I wanted my _old _Master back – why would I! Cyclonis was the most powerful and feared being in the entire Atmos once, and then _Piper _came along and all of that got 'messed up'. So, instead of bringing back a failure – I can make a new ruler, a new Cyclonis."

"She'd _never_ help you."

"She won't have a choice. This stone destroyed both women, so I can just use it to bring back certain elements of them; if I bring back Cyclonis' ruthlessness and Piper's powers and intelligence, I will have a great master once again. The Cyclonians will be _unstoppable!_ We will rule the skies for thousands of years, the years of the _Sky Knights _are finally **over**."

"No!"

The Storm Hawks make one last bid for freedom, but their captors hold them still, Aerrow struggles desperately as the Dark Ace takes a small step away from Piper and holds the stone up to her face; "Piper! NO, PIPER! STOP IT, STOP IT, _PLEASE_! DARK ACE!"

His pleas are useless, there's nothing he can do; his team are crying out, struggling desperately, trying not to watch the Hypno Stone glowing brighter and brighter. The Sky Knight is fixated on the scene, the brighter the crystal becomes, the more Piper seems to take notice; he watches her, trying to hold her hands out to the stone, and he realises the same old pattern of behaviour. Except this time, he pleads in his mind for her to break the stone, to do _anything_ to stop her from being changed by the Cyclonian; and ironically, this time she doesn't touch it, there's something new in her look, an element of fear and confusion. She knows something isn't right… she's bordering on awareness… it's the closest to Piper that she's ever been in years…

The Dark Ace is cackling again, his eyes growing wider as he too watches the transformation.

But then the laughter stops.

The crystal is burning, it's colour a pure white as the intensity of its glow becomes too powerful; now the Dark Ace is screaming, the flesh touching the stone beginning to bubble under the immense heat. Piper does not tear her amber eyes away, she can't – neither can Aerrow. The screaming becomes unbearable; the Talons don't know what to do, all are paralysed in fear, still aware that they must hold onto their captives.

And then the crystal, a blistering white, shaking violently… explodes.

It shatters into a thousand, million tiny, miniscule fragments.

Like flecks of dust, they drift to the floor.

The Dark Ace stumbles backwards, howling at the state of his swollen palms, screeching at the level of pain inflicted; huge blisters rise and burst. Aerrow remains still, eyes permanently on Piper who has not moved. She doesn't even blink; her look remains as blank and as lifeless as before. A part of him experiences relief at the sight. But the Cyclonian quickly overcomes the initial shock of his injuries and remembers the navigator too, racing forward he clutches at her arms and shakes her.

"Master, _Master_… it's _me… your servant, the Dark Ace_. I'm here for you Master, Master! _Please!"_

There is no reply. He screams madly in frustration.

Finn whistles mockingly, the Dark Ace turns, paces towards Aerrow and lifts him by his neck. "**You**, _what did you do __**do**__!"_

"Nothing!"

"_DON'T __**LIE**__! __**TELL ME**__! WHERE – DID YOU GET – THE STONE!"_

Aerrow struggles for breath. "From the _Sky Siren – _she copied Piper, used my memories to duplicate her abilities and restore – the _Crystal for you_…"

"Then why – hasn't – it – **WORKED**!"

The Sky Knight asks himself the same question. _Why? What went wrong? How did she make a mistake!_

And then it hits him. She didn't make a mistake. Of course she didn't. This is _Piper_ they're talking about, she wasn't about to be _tricked_ by the Dark Ace into creating a weapon of immense power! How could Aerrow ever think she would do!

A smirk appears on his face, infuriating the Dark Ace even more so; he shakes Aerrow roughly, clawing at his neck like an animal. "TELL ME!"

Aerrow, looks down at the mess of a man, and with a smile says one simple sentence. "_Because she never intended it to work._"

At this, the Talon drops Aerrow to the floor and kicks him away where he lies, motionless; the Sky Knight watches him pace away, body trembling with rage and insanity. He knows it's the end for them all now, but he realises now that it was never about getting Piper back… it was about fulfilling their destiny. Piper sacrificed her life for them, and Aerrow had foolishly thought that he could tempt her fate by bringing her back; his only regret – that the rest of his team would suffer too. He looks behind him to Finn, an apology written on his furrowed brow; but the sharp shooter returns it with a determined smile and a curt nod, he doesn't want his leader to be sorry. It was his decision to follow him into battle, and he is proud that he made that decision.

Aerrow turns back to the Dark Ace, pushing himself up from the floor as he does so; but the screaming has died away now, laughter has again taken its place and once more, Aerrow experiences those chills of dread. An idea has formed in his mind, a fear that he has harboured for all these years has hit him hard; he doesn't even know where it has come from, but something is telling him that the Dark Ace has one more plan up his sleeve… a way of dealing out _revenge_.

The Talon has his back to the Storm Hawks, but he moves closer to Piper and pulls her to him; Aerrow makes a dive for him but is forced to the ground by the Cyclonian soldiers. He watches the Dark Ace remove something from his pocket, something he keeps hidden in his swollen hand; not that he needs to, the sinking feeling in the Sky Knight's chest tells him that he already knows what he has a hold of.

_And I've looked for so long…_

The broken man turns around to his shocked audience, holding Piper to his chest, raising his hand into the air; everyone watches, even Piper has her eyes on his hand. Aerrow knows she can feel it, can sense what lies within his palm; he sees her small, delicate fingers flex longingly in anticipation.

And then the Dark Ace opens his fingers just a little… just enough to let something fall from it and dangle from a piece of string.

It is a small crystal, vibrant blue in colour, glittering in the crimson light, looking as beautiful and as clean as the day Aerrow saw it last… hanging from Piper's neck. His sick expression makes his foe laugh again. "_Got you, Sky Knight_." He hisses. The Crystal Mage in his arm is struggling, trying to get free from his grasp to touch the crystal, desperate to hold it; she whimpers and as though only just aware of her movement, the Dark Ace looks down to her evilly. "Oh, you _want_ this do you? _Do you?_" He swings it in front of her in a tormenting fashion, she struggles more so, tears form in her eyes; watching her fill with pain wrenches at Aerrow's heart, he struggles for her, pleading in his mind for the Dark Ace to let her go.

He continues to torment her, "does little Piper want to play? Does she?" His expression hardens. "_Then get down on the floor and __**beg**__." _With one hard push, he sends her flying to the floor; something cracks as she comes into contact with the solid ground and Aerrow cries out as though pained himself. But the Dark Ace is not done yet, Piper continues to reach up, seemingly unaware of the pain from her broken wrist, eyes fixated on her necklace…

The Talon steps back a few paces, puts the crystal on the floor and gently places his foot over it; Aerrow continues to cry out. "Please, Ace, don't! It wasn't her; she didn't mean for the crystal to not work! Please, _don't_; please don't do it!"

His pleas are either ignored or not heard, for the Dark Ace remains transfixed upon the whimpering girl on the floor; "_this is it how it is in the real world, child." _He spits. "_You break my things…" _

He raises his foot.

"**ACE, PLEASE!**"

One last curl of those pallid lips.

"…_I break yours."_

The Sky Knight yells, horrified as he watches the Dark Ace stamp the sole of his boot against the crystal; it cracks, he does it again, the crack grows larger, the crystal begins to split. Piper is screaming, Aerrow is torn between watching the Talon and watching her; he can't take it. And then, with one last blow, the crystal shatters; there is one last, terrifying scream from the Crystal Mage as she drags herself across the floor with one last surge of energy and then… nothing.

Piper collapses, lifeless.

"NO! PIPER! **PIPER**!"

The Storm Hawks all look on, terrified; but she does not move, she lies limp, sprawled out on the cold stone. The Dark Ace moves toward her, Aerrow struggles. "DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!" The Talon pays no notice, he bends down, scoops Piper up a little, laughs and then throws her across the room like a rag doll. The Sky Knight and his team cry out, all enraged by his actions, calling to Piper, begging for her to come round. But then a heavy-handed fist comes into contact with Aerrow's jaw, sending him flying backwards; before he can pull himself together, he receives second blow to his cheek, and then another to his chest.

The Dark Ace looms over him, the Sky Knight wipes the blood from his lips. "I'll teach _you_ to ruin my plans!" Except, before he can deliver a final blow a Talon from out of nowhere flies into him; the pair crash into the ground in a tangle of limbs, both taken aback. Aerrow looks up to see Finn with his fists free, pummelling his captors into the ground; a second surprised Talon knocks over Junko who seizes the moment and turns on his own guards simultaneously. The commotion distracts the remaining Cyclonians who release Stork and Radarr in a bid to help their own but instantly regret the move; spirits lifted momentarily, Aerrow moves for Piper but sensing danger swiftly ducks out of the way as the Dark Ace returns to batter him.

The Storm Hawk blocks a punch, dealing his enemy with a swift blow to the throat and then one to the back of the head; they become locked in hand to hand combat, kicking and beating and slamming each other into the ground. This time the Dark Ace does not lack his viciousness, he has already used his trump card; there is nothing else to lose for either of them. Yet despite this, Aerrow remains the better fighter, he is quicker, smoother, and more skilled; unlike the Dark Ace, there is still a spark of clarity left in his mind. Because Aerrow is guided by love, not hate, and that makes you stronger; even if the love you feel causes you pain. Piper taught him that.

Finn watches from a distance, still locked in his own battle but wary for his leader; then his eye catches the blade resting in the Dark Ace's holster, one of Aerrow's blades, picked up from the floor when no one was paying attention. He watches, as Aerrow kicks the Talon further away from him, watches the man reach for the blade, watches him prepare to charge…

"AERROW, LOOK OUT!"

He can't get to him, there's too many in his way; the Sky Knight hears the warning but can't react quickly enough, instead he trips over his own feet. Stumbling to the floor, he feels his back burning with pain from the hot energy blade that has just ripped through his skin like a knife through butter; he yells out, rolling out of the way of a second attack but unable to get up to his feet. His legs are aching, warm blood is trickling over his flesh from the gaping wound that he thankfully cannot see; he does not want to know the extent of the damage, he'd rather die ignorant.

Finn is fighting to reach his friend, but part of him knows that it is too late; Aerrow moves onto his back to see the Dark Ace above him, blade gripped in one hand and maddened smile on his face, one eye twitching insanely.

"_This is it, Aerrow; just think of it as me upholding my end of the deal. I promised you'd get Piper back, and you will… because you'll be joining her!"_

His second hand grips the handle of the weapon, he raises it above his head, working out where to aim; Aerrow doesn't move, he surrenders to the inevitable. _At least he'll see Piper again_.

"Goodbye, Storm Hawk!"

And then the blade slices though his chest, breaking bone and tearing skin and ripping muscle.

Aerrow opens his eyes, feeling the splatter of blood against his face, ignorant of the pain.

_What pain?_

The room falls silent.

The Dark Ace drops the weapon in his blistered hands, his eyes falling to the huge lump of twisted metal sticking out of him; his mouth falls open, blood begins to stream from it. The Sky Knight stumbles backwards in surprise, clutching at his own chest to find nothing there. Those fearful crimson eyes move to him, then back to his splintered chest; and then the broken man with the twisted face shatters, his limp body crashing to the floor, his own weapon still embedded within him.

The Cyclonians cry out, they gather themselves up and race from the room; too cowardly to even attempt to save their leader.

The Storm Hawks look upon the scene with shock, no one makes a sound, no one moves.

Aerrow stays where he is, motionless, eyes never blinking; his heart is racing, thundering inside of his own chest. He can't believe his eyes. _Is he still alive? Or has he just gone crazy? _

Steadily, he gets to his feet, and then stands still, paralysed, not daring to breathe in case this dream ends. A pair of the most beautiful amber eyes he has ever seen meets his stare, they sparkle with life; true, wondrous _life_.

"_Piper?"_

A small, tired smile.

"_Aerrow."_

And then the exhaustion overwhelms her and she collapses into his arms. Aerrow holds her tight, feeling the beating of her heart against his own, tears rolling down his bruised and bloodied cheeks; he takes her in, her warmth, her smell, her breath against his neck. His picks her up in his arms, holding her to his chest and he whispers in her ear:

"_I'm here Piper, I won't let you go." _


	10. Time Heals

**A/N: **_and here it is, finally finished! I am over the moon! A quick warning, there's a lot of tense changes in this last chapter as I flick from scene to scene, trying to make sure that I've wrapped everything up! _

_This story is dedicated to ~Her Head in the Clouds, someone I consider to be my friend, who always writes great reviews and whose own work (both video and fanfiction) is inspiring to say the least. The initial idea for Come Back to Me was sparked after reading and watching much of her work!_

_A special thanks to ~WishfulTrance, another fanfiction author who has repeatedly offered me great encouragement and whose work is also of the highest calibre! _

_But I can't not say thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed my work, some of you have followed this story from the very beginning, some have offered great critique that has allowed me to look objectively at my writing and aim to improve more and more and all of you have kept my determination to get this thing finished strong. So thank you, I think I might rest now for a while :'D But please, enjoy! I hope this ending is what you wanted!_

* * *

Time Heals

It was like living in a dream, the kind where you know that the world is just too perfect to be real and therefore you _must_ be dreaming; it's the kind of dream that you don't want to end because it's the happiest you've ever felt and waking up leaves you cold and alone.

Aerrow didn't want to wake up; he was scared that she might disappear.

They kept telling him that it _wasn't _a dream, but he wouldn't listen… not at first. It took many days to convince himself that the girl lying in the bed beside him wasn't simply a figment of his imagination; he sat and watched over her for hours at a time, scarcely daring to blink, to lose sight of her for even a second, in case he opened his eyes to find her gone. He kept his fingers entwined with hers, lived for every breath she took; every time she stirred his heart faltered, he never once left her side.

And then, one day, he let himself believe.

Because nothing could ever replicate those honeyed, carnelian eyes, not even Aerrow's imagination; the day that Piper woke up, the Sky Knight's dream ended and his world began again. There lay Piper, _his_ Piper, bruised and battered but smiling… and most importantly, she was real_. _She didn't say anything, but Aerrow hadn't needed her to – just one look in those eyes and he had seen the life in them. _This was his Piper, the Piper he loved._

And for the first time in five years, Aerrow hadn't needed a dream, the reality was better.

Tonight is a beautiful night, the sky is an array of interwoven colours creating a sight that any artist would call a masterpiece; violets and fuchsias and indigoes all mix with the violent whites of the burning stars above the _Condor_. But no star shines brighter than the one standing before Aerrow right now.

The Sky Knight looks at her from afar, leaning against the railings of the _Condor_, her cerulean hair swaying in the warm breeze; he watches her close her eyes and enjoy the sensation of it brushing against her face, taking in the smells and the sounds of the world around her. Piper has lived five long empty years, blind to the world around her and now the plainest setting, the most average sunset or the dullest morning will sometimes make tears rise in her eyes at the simple beauty of existence.

How Piper feels about the Atmos, Aerrow feels about her; every time he sees her, it's like being bathed in sunlight, a blinding sunlight that strips you of your falsehoods and lets your soul breathe, lets you live again.

He'd like to tell her that he loves her.

But he can't.

Not yet, anyway.

* * *

Losing five years of your life, changes you; for five years you existed and yet did not live, you opened your eyes without seeing, you heard but did not listen, your heart would beat but it would not feel… for five years you were nobody, no one, _nothing_. And in that time, the world carried on without you; people grew up, moved on, changed.

The people you once knew are different now, they are strangers, not the friends you used to know and love; even your own body rejects you. Though you weren't aware of it, it also continued to grow, continued to change until the body that you once called your own now feels separate to your own mind.

This is how life is for Piper, or at least… it _was_ when she first returned to the Storm Hawks. She had woken up to see a team huddled around her, a group of people that used to be familiar; and every subsequent day after that one brought upon new and difficult challenges. The woman in the mirror was someone Piper didn't recognise, the crystals sitting in the untouched lab were relics from a life lived before her own, the hand-drawn maps and plotted courses remained uncharted territories to the Navigator.

It had broken Aerrow's heart all over again to see her so distraught, a woman on the verge of madness as she tried to piece back together a life she couldn't remember. For five years, the Sky Knight had convinced himself that the love he felt for her was so great, it would defeat all obstacles… but it hadn't.

And so, after much debate, Piper moved back into the hospital that Aerrow had been so determined to free her from; Dove ensured that she would be well taken care of, the Storm Hawks didn't doubt her, but they couldn't help feeling sometimes that all their efforts had been in vain… what kind of life had they brought their friend back into?

She resided at the home for nine months, nine long months filled with trials and tribulations and plenty of nightmares; Piper experienced many horrific, sleepless nights when her frustration and depression overwhelmed her, her development took longer than she had ever expected and every day was like stamping 'failure' on her calendar. It was as though a blockade had settled itself between her and her past, one that took a long time to tear down; but Dove and the other doctors slowly and steadily began to make progress with her, and sure enough – brick by brick – that wall came tumbling down.

Her life before the accident soon returned to her; however, not satisfied with this amazing result, the Crystal Mage took to pulling apart the five years she hadn't existed. Her body had stored things, little memories, photographs of scenes and events that had taken place around her – combining these with the records from the hospital, Piper slowly developed an overall picture of what her life had been like. And through the five years of haze, one factor had constantly remained by her side…

Aerrow.

There had been periods of time when Aerrow had visited her day after day after day; his untidy scribble for a signature filled page after page in the visitors' logbooks. Piper had been given the room she had occupied before, and though she had been touched to find that Dove had left everything in its proper place; a discovery within the room, made when she had opened the draw at her desk, proved all the more moving. It had been filled with seemingly insignificant, little notes, written in the same untidy scrawl as the one in the visitor's books made by her Sky Knight. There were notes with orders on them, telling her to eat properly and sleep well and to behave for the nurses; there were notes telling her how the team were doing, jokes about Finn's beard and Junko's new-fangled recipes; and then there was one other note – just one other – the kind of note that had been left at the pinnacle of the man's loneliness and desperation:

"_I miss you, Piper – please come back to me."_

Piper kept every single little scrap of paper from that draw, but that one, that lone solitary message was kept apart; she put it in her treasure box and every night, on preparing for bed, she would remove it from its storage space and read it – just the once, every night. It acted as a reminder, that somewhere in the Atmos, there was someone waiting for her. That was Piper's incentive, her need to make it back to the one person who truly mattered.

Aerrow, like Piper, had lost five years of his life and they had long since been owed an happy ending.

Together.

* * *

During this time of recovery, the remaining Storm Hawks put themselves to good use; the news of Piper's consciousness spread throughout the Atmos like wildfire and soon the Sky Knight and his squadron were called upon by the Sky Council to explain all that had happened to them. On learning about their experiences within the ruins of Cyclonia, the Elders agreed that it was time to bring a complete end to the feared Cyclonian Empire; it was ordered that the remains of the terra were to be destroyed, pulled apart stone by stone if necessary, if it meant that it could never again haunt the Atmos.

It was the Storm Hawks who rounded up volunteers for such a mission and over the following months they gradually tore the terra apart and threw it to the wastelands. Aerrow oversaw the whole project, his heart set on ensuring that no one would ever suffer there the way he and his squadron had. For him, the destruction of Cyclonia was not revenge on a personal level, it was simply a message to the peaceful world that it was time that the Atmos forgave and forgot. And Aerrow made this message very clear with one simple act…

Two bodies were discovered soon into the destruction process, the bodies of the two most evil and corrupt people to have ever existed. Both were mutilated and twisted, having lived and died in obvious agony, but it was not hard to recognise them: the Dark Ace and Master Cyclonis, infamous and feared throughout the Atmos no longer. It was universally believed that the only thing they deserved was to be thrown into the wastelands along with their precious, defeated empire.

But the Sky Knight of the Storm Hawks had refused such a demand.

Yes, they had once been cruel and their plans had once threatened the very livelihood of every other being in existence… but that had been many years ago; they had become weak and helpless, destroyed by each other's lust for death and destruction. Cyclonis had damaged her most loyal soldier beyond repair, shattered him into pieces like fragile glass… and in return, he had slaughtered her like an animal, beaten her into the ground like a rag doll and sacrificed her soul in the desperate search for a new master.

_They had deserved each other._

It was with this knowledge that Aerrow asked for their bodies to be buried with respect and for their resting places to be left alone, to be eternally forgotten. After all of their suffering, in an odd sort of way, they deserved peace.

There was very little the Elders could say in protest to the Sky Knight's plea, three times now he had removed the greatest threat to the Atmos – the man who had stood before them was a lot different to the fourteen year old who had once begged to be made the leader of an official team, and he deserved to be listened to. And listen they did.

Master Cyclonis and the Dark Ace now lie side by side in two unmarked graves on an unchartered terra too small to sustain life; between them, Aerrow planted a single flower – a daisy. It held no true importance… except perhaps the hope of the young Sky Knight, that between them, a new life could come into existence.

One day, he'll return, just to see if such a thing is truly possible.

* * *

This was ten months ago.

Now Aerrow stands on the threshold to the balcony of the _Condor_ looking out onto the beautiful night sky that seems dull in comparison with the young woman standing before it. This distance that remains between them, these few metres, this inability to connect physically – it is only a representation of how the pair of them are emotionally at this given point in time. Piper has been back with the team for only a week and after nearly six years apart, everyone is a little on edge, understandably.

The Crystal Mage is aware of eyes on her all the time – not prying eyes – it's simply the watchful, concerned gaze of her family, making sure that she is safe and well; and to be honest, Piper welcomes it. She will never truly regain every single last second of her life, but she has overcome that sense of loss; her time with Dove and the other doctors has taught her that if she cannot face the future and forget the past, she will lose even more. And Piper does not want that, she needs her family, loves them all unconditionally… and that is all that matters.

Unfortunately, of all the people she has been having a hard time connecting with, it is Aerrow she finds distant; she has tried to talk to him, tried to find a minute to spend with him alone… but whenever she approaches, he simply pulls away. There is something different about him, he can't look at her, _won't_ look at her; he only ever mumbles her name, avoids her eye contact, her touch… _everything. _

Piper is at a loss, this Aerrow is different to the one she has images of in her memory, this isn't the man who every time he saw her would tell the same thing again and again, every time he left her:

"_I love you, Piper. Please come back to me."_

You cannot believe how much the Crystal Mage longs to tell her Sky Knight that she has done just that, but finding the right moment is proving difficult. Tonight however, Piper has come to a decision: that it is now or never. Only that morning, the girl had returned to the hospital in order to ask for some advice from Dove – not as a patient, but as a friend, desperately in need of guidance.

* * *

"_What am I supposed to do! I can't take this anymore, Dove! Seven days I've been back and each subsequent day has been as bad as the one before it!"_

"_You surely did not expect everything to be perfect from the start, did you?"_

_Piper starts, raises her hands in protest; "no, no not at all! Well… maybe… oh, I don't know! It's just, I'm so confused! He's changed so much in five years! It's not like I'm trying to compare this new Aerrow to the old one, I'm just trying to understand. My memories, the ones of his visits – I can see him, I can smell him, I can __touch__ him… he's right there, squeezing my hand, looking at me… telling me… telling me that he loves me…"_

"_And… you don't think that he does?"_

_The distressed Storm Hawk raises her gaze to look into the startling blue eyes of one of her greatest friends, tears rising to the surface that she fights to hold back; "… I just don't know. I think he did, once."_

_Dove leans back in her chair, sighs a little, chews on her bottom lip; "do you __want__ him to love you? How do you feel about him loving you? How do you feel towards Aerrow in general, Piper?"_

_The two women sit face to face in the grey lounging area, two cups of coffee sitting on the table between them, untouched; there is silence, a moment's pause as Piper takes in the magnitude of these questions. How __does__ she feel about Aerrow? About him loving her? She clutches at her own trembling hands as she thinks about him, his eyes, his smell, his laughter; and then she knows her answer. _

"_I love him, Dove. I did before I left and I do now after all this time… a part of me always loved him. Of course I want him to love me! …it's all I've ever wanted."_

_Her friend smiles and folds her arms on top of her lap in a "well-there-you-are" sort of a way; Piper looks at her and feels her own smile growing. _

"_Then you don't have to worry about a thing;" Dove begins, "Aerrow is scared – that is all. He's seen the girl he loves warped, damaged, nearly killed, injured, tortured, messed with; and like the gentleman he is, he is only concerned with how __you__ are feeling. His distance is most likely him attempting to ensure that you are comfortable once again with your surroundings, he probably does not want to force his feelings on you in case you are still fragile."_

"_That sounded more like psycho-analysis rather than a friendly word of advice." Piper raises an eyebrow but Dove laughs it off; the Storm Hawk's tone turns serious just a little. "… so what should I do?"_

_A moment's pause._

"_Tell him, tell him how you feel; Aerrow is not likely to say anything until you give him a sign that you are ready to move on in your life. You can't sit and wait for the other to make the next move, this isn't a game of chess, this is real life – the pair of you have waited long enough, don't let a little lack of confidence keep you apart. You love him, he loves you – it may not seem very simple, but that's exactly what it is. Show your Sky Knight that you've come back to him."_

* * *

Tonight is the night, for both of them.

The Crystal Mage knows that her Sky Knight is behind her, she can feel him close to her through their eternal bond; Piper smiles to herself sadly, tonight feels like a night they shared a long time ago, she can only hope that it doesn't end with them both alone. She takes a deep breath, this is it; time to finally move on.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

Aerrow starts, not having expected any communication. Piper turns to look at him, leans against the banister and smiles; her leader, coaxed in by her welcoming expression, moves forwards until he is standing beside her. The Navigator doesn't say a word, doesn't breathe, doesn't make a move; all she can do is watch him, trying to control the bubbling of emotions surging just beneath the surface. The Sky Knight too is rigid, very aware of his own desires that are coursing through his veins; the distance between them is nothing, he can feel the warmth of her body near him and it plays havoc with his self-control.

The young man forces himself to remain calm.

"No," he answers softly, "no I can't sleep very well anymore."

His answer holds a sad truth that awakens concern in Piper; "why not?"

"… nightmares."

It is a simple enough reply, one that bears an underlying message telling the Mage not to ask; she decides to respect the unspoken request, for now at least. Beneath her calm façade, she panics, Dove had made the whole thing sound so simple, but how do you even begin to tell someone you love them? Do you just… _tell them_?

Things had seemed so much simpler, five years ago – so why had Piper never told him how she felt? Had she been waiting for the right moment? Had she been waiting for him to tell her? She can't remember. But she knows that she had been afraid, afraid of Aerrow's reaction – now, it's the same old fear: the bond that lies between them is still there, but it is weakening rapidly and Piper fears that it is because the Sky Knight does not want to be bound to her anymore. There is no rationality behind this idea, no logic whatsoever – but the wretched thought has become lodged in the navigator's mind and no reason will ever remove it. Not until she _knows_.

"Aerrow, I –"

" – here, Piper. This is for you."

The Crystal Mage is forced to swallow her words as Aerrow interrupts, thrusting out a closed hand towards her; a little startled, Piper cautiously holds her palms out beneath it. The Sky Knight lowers his arm and when his fingers are about a centimetre away from Piper's outstretched own, he releases the tension of his grip and drops something small into her hands. She gasps, her amber eyes drawn to the dazzling turquoise of a fragile little crystal resting before her, tied to a thin string; tears form as she looks back up to her squadron leader.

"… how did you…?"

Aerrow looks away, trying not to cry himself. "I've spent a lot of time at Cyclonia recently, it didn't take too long to find all the pieces."

"… but _why_…?"

_Because I love you._

"Because you wanted it, it's yours after all… I thought it only right that it be returned to you."

Before Piper can ask any more questions, Aerrow has turned and left after a brief 'goodnight' nod in her general direction; the Mage's mind is racing, tears are streaming down her cheeks. Does he not love her then? Has he changed her mind? …But why would he! There is the possibility that the experiences of the last five years have hurt Aerrow more than she could ever understand, watching her seemingly die and never thinking she would recover may have forced him to make a decision and cut himself off from her; perhaps he is too afraid that getting close to her will only lead to him suffering even more so.

But a second train of thought is quickly gathering pace, the crystal in her hand is not only mended, it looks a though it has never been broken; there are no cracks, no missing pieces, it is complete. And Piper is well experienced enough in the crystal department to know that such reparations take time and effort. It is her crystal definitely, because she can feel its energy signature. But she can feel something different, something stronger inside of her; her necklace is not the only thing that has been healed, a part of herself has been healed too…

Dove's words suddenly make sense.

"_Aerrow's afraid, Piper."_

And Piper realises that up until this point, she has been afraid too – and it's been holding her back. King Agar had once told her that sacrifice was in her destiny, and she had ultimately offered her life in order to save those she loved – if she can do that, nothing can stand between her and Aerrow. Because she loves him. _She __loves__ him. _And she can't live without him.

It won't do to be afraid, and she's only afraid when she doesn't have him near her.

So why is she still standing here!

"Aerrow – _Aerrow_ – wait, please!"

The Sky Knight is pacing through the corridor, cursing himself for not having stayed beside his navigator; he wishes he could be himself around her, wishes he could tell her how he feels. But he is so scared of damaging her that he daren't; until he can know for sure that she has completely healed, Aerrow will not burden her soul with any more chaos or confusion. This is his resolve. This is the right thing to do.

Then why does it _hurt_ him so much?

"Aerrow, wait!"

His heart falters as that familiar voice cries out to him, the emotion easily detectable; he doesn't hesitate in turning around, the desperation in Piper's pleas alerts his second nature to protect her at all costs. He starts as he sees her running at him, crystal clutched in her slender fingers, arms reaching out for him, tears streaming down her smooth cheeks. Piper doesn't stop, as the distance between them lessens, her legs weaken under the extreme emotion and they buckle; she falls forwards into the Sky Knight's chest. He catches her, strong arms wrapping around her tiny waist. They both sink to the floor, Aerrow stunned into silence and Piper still sobbing.

"Please, Aerrow… _please_…"

Tears are rising in the Sky Knight's eyes too, now. To have her in his arms again is just too much. "What is it, Piper? Tell me, what is it!"

"Please," she begs, clutching at his shirt; "_please don't leave me_…"

Finally, the Sky Knight realises how foolish he has been, in his attempt to cut her off for her own stability, he has only weakened Piper further; how could he even have thought that pretending his feelings didn't exist would help in any way? What had he been afraid of? Had it been her state of mind?

… Or had it been rejection?

Cradling the weeping woman in his arms, Aerrow softly whispers in her ears the words he had first spoken to her, ten months ago on Cyclonia. "_I'm here, Piper… I won't let you go."_

_

* * *

_

"How did you do it?"

Piper glances sideways to her Sky Knight sitting beside her, he hasn't torn his eyes away from the sky above the pair of them but the navigator knows that she has his full attention; she follows his gaze upwards and sighs wistfully, what a question… how does she explain?

"I was a coward," she whispers, "I didn't want to die. So I came up with a plan. I remember sitting in my laboratory all week trying to work out how I could fulfil my sacrificial destiny and survive at the same time… and then it came to me; after all my training as a Crystal Mage, why couldn't I use another crystal to protect me… just not in the way anyone would ever expect? You can very rarely find a crystal powerful enough that can resist the powers of the Hypno Stone, in fact, the only one in existence is its sister: the Oracle Stone." At this point, Piper looks down to the Oracle Stone sitting in the palm of her hand; she's had it with her since she returned to consciousness ten months ago, having placed it back inside her small satchel that hangs from her belt. She feels safe with it there, for numerous reasons…

"_I grabbed something for you on the way out."_

The Crystal Mage smiles to herself, perhaps there's just one reason in particular: Aerrow had always looked out for her, and on that day he'd given her a precious, _priceless_ crystal without even batting an eyelid. He'd done it to make her happy, to say sorry for her not seeing the Oracle. Piper shares as much of a connection with the stone as she does with Aerrow, they were meant to be together – just as she believes that she and her Sky Knight are meant to be together.

Aerrow waits for her to continue patiently, a similar feeling of belonging rippling over him; whatever Piper is feeling, he can feel it too. It is that sense of meaning, knowing that some things are meant to happen – just as Piper had meant to meet the Oracle, had meant to receive the Crystal. Funny really, because deep in his heart, he also knows that he and Piper were meant to be together… but both destinies couldn't have co-existed. And yet here they are…

_Here we are._

"Can you remember where my necklace came from, Aerrow?"

The Sky Knight nods, "of course, it's from my energy blades. I broke a bit off when I was little and made the necklace for you, because you liked the colour." He and Piper blush as they remember their childhood and how innocent they once were.

"Yes, funny how we never realised how powerful those crystals were. And that's when it came to me, as I was sitting in the lab, stroking this little fragment absently-mindedly thinking about that day." Even now, Piper has raised a hand to the jewel sitting around her neck and begun to stroke it. "…I thought, why not transform that power? During those years and years of research, I came across plenty of references and examples of "chamber crystals"- crystals that can store things, memories, images, thoughts… even souls…"

A brief silence, every piece of the puzzle is slowly fitting into place.

"Blue striker crystals are some of the most powerful crystals in the Atmos, it was perfect! My necklace had enough to energy to act as a chamber crystal – with a little bit of tweaking of course, but that was nothing I couldn't handle." Piper shrugs, she's not boasting, she's being honest – this had been a time when she was desperate, desperate to live, she would have worked herself into the ground just to avoid that prophecy.

"… so, what happened? How did it work?"

Aerrow's emerald eyes fall upon his navigator's face, curious, wanting to know more; he's spent nearly six years wondering what happened. Now he's finally getting his answers.

"I knew the consequences of destroying the Hypno Stone whilst in such a close vicinity, especially when it had been activated; I knew the Oracle Stone would allow me to get close enough, and I knew I could use it to efficiently destroy its sibling crystal. The shield it provided me with also meant that I didn't turn out like Cyclonis at the end of it all. So, I altered my necklace, bonded with it to ensure that my conscience could safely pass into it and be sealed inside; but of course, to move a conscience safely you need a great deal of power…"

"… and the destruction of the Hypno Stone was the sort of power you needed." Aerrow finishes her sentence. "That explosion was enough to allow you to lock yourself away in the crystal."

Piper nods again, "exactly. Like a chemical reaction. I thought I was so clever, hitting two birds with one stone, seemingly fulfilling my destiny by sacrificing my soul and my safety… but then being reawakened as if by magic! No one would ever have to know what should have happened…"

The young man ponders this for a while and Piper sits in silence beside him, waiting.

"That's why I always wanted to find your necklace, because I could tell that it was important; not just because of that last night on the _Condor_, because I knew that it wasn't just something sentimental. It meant life or death for you… and part of me knew that; the part of me I shared with you..."

Silence falls again, a comfortable silence. Aerrow speaks after a while.

"… so… to release your conscience from the crystal you had to… break it."

"Yes, that's why I've broken so many crystals over the past few years – I sort of left… directions or orders built into my body to find the necklace and smash it so that I could be released; but the link between mind and matter was tenuous, and I guess I wasn't precise enough. I smashed every crystal I could come across because the plan had gone wrong… the Dark Ace had taken my necklace…"

Finally, Aerrow turns to look at Piper directly; his sudden movements make Piper jump and she turns to him wearing a startled expression. They are sitting side by side on the roof of the _Condor_, away from any disturbance, surrounded by the stars; they aren't touching, they're simply basking in each other's presence, playing it cautiously, aware that even after a five year wait they cannot rush things.

"Why didn't you tell me about all of this, Piper? I know I refused to take the necklace… but if you had told me that it would _save your life_, you should have known I would have taken the crystal for _that_! How could I not!" The Sky Knight beats his fists against the metal roof of the ship in frustration; "I should have pushed you further, I should have known something wasn't right!"

"Aerrow… _Aerrow_, please…" Piper whispers, she moves closer as he curls his legs up into his chest; steadily, the navigator changes position so that she is kneeling in front of him, leaning forward to see his buried face. She strokes his hair, coaxes him to look up at her and smiles. "I didn't tell you… I didn't tell you because… because I was afraid that you would be ashamed of me."

"_Why would I be ashamed of you?"_

"Because I was taking the coward's way out! And that is not the way the Storm Hawks do things; you taught us to be brave, to face our fears and to do the right thing. Cheating the prophecy, escaping death, that is how the Cyclonians work – not us. I realised, on that balcony that night, that regardless of my fear… my love for you was greater, and I was doing it for you, my Sky Knight, the one who made me the Storm Hawk I am today."

Aerrow relaxes a little, pulls himself out of his little ball of self-loathing and looks at Piper warmly; his navigator smiles and runs a finger down his cheek, laughing a little. "The last time I saw you before the war, you were a boy, then I wake up after five years and see a grown man; now I realise it's just the facial hair, you're still the Aerrow I remember."

_The Aerrow I love._

Her Sky Knight grins sheepishly but his face turns sombre as he raises his hand and entwines his fingers with hers, clasps them tightly, not daring to let her go; Piper leans forward, gazing into his jade-coloured eyes, hardly allowing herself to breathe. "Almost six years ago, I made a promise to someone close to me, Piper. A promise I didn't keep. And that girl suffered, because I couldn't look after her. Now I'm not asking her to forgive me… I know that's too much to ask but…"

"She doesn't have to forgive you, you did nothing wrong! Oh Aerrow, _she doesn't have to forgive you at all!_"

Aerrow pulls her closer to him, "you mean it? But Piper… all of the things I did to you, the things I _didn't _do! Things have changed, what if I'm not right for you, what if I can't make you happy! I so want to make you happy, I want to give you your life back, I want… I want so many things Piper…"

She edges forward again, removing her hand from his grasp and cupping his face lovingly; "there are so many things I haven't told you, Aerrow. This body, there are memories that I don't recognise, memories that this body has stored for years on end; I can see a boy – a man – sitting beside me, holding my hands, calling out my name. Nearly every day he's there, beside me, just waiting; and even when I don't respond to his words, when I don't react to his touch, he stays. And when it comes to an end, and he has to leave… he tells me the same thing, every time. _I heard you, Aerrow_. Through all of the darkness and the pain and the emptiness, I could see you, hear you, _feel_ you; you were there, asking me for guidance, telling me how you felt, how your day had gone."

The man's heart is racing, she felt the way he did! She saw him! Heard him!

"I felt the same… Piper, there were days when I thought I was going mad; you'd be there, right beside me, telling me what to do, helping me with plans and missions and preparation. Piper..." Tears slide down Piper's cheeks but Aerrow wipes them away with his thumb, caresses her face. "I don't want you to feel rushed, I don't want you to think that this is too much, too soon – I've been so afraid of damaging you…"

"Don't Aerrow, _please_. You could never damage me; you've fixed me… _you complete me_… I'm nothing without you, I've _been_ nothing without you; I've spent ten months trying to work out who I am, but I already know; I'm _yours_." A pause, she smiles through her tears; "don't you see, Aerrow? _I've come back to you…"_

She sinks into the Sky Knight's chest, holding him tight; he pulls her into her, wraps his arms around her waist, kisses the top of her head, strokes her neck and lips and cheeks. Then he tips her head back so he can see her eyes and smiles in a way he has never smiled before; she smiles back.

For five years, Aerrow has been blind; he knows now, that sometimes, you have to believe the impossible. He understands everything, how their love has kept them united for all of this time, has kept him searching. Throughout his entire journey to save navigator, there had been one constant in his life, guiding him to her, like a compass… and it had been Piper. Across the Atmos they had heard each other, had fought to find each other, had faced impossible things just to be with each other again.

"_Piper, don't __you__ see? You never left me…"_


End file.
